New Paragons
by Arthur Hansen
Summary: Four heroes from a destroyed world managed to flee across dimensions. They land lost and confused in Brockton Bay. Damn last Tuesday of the month...
1. New Paragons 1-0

The sky bled red as the ground quaked again.

"Everyone else is gone, Ms. Liberty. We should get the hell out of here," the giant woman said. She was standing in front of a huge device, a dimensional portal that was screaming loudly with power as all of its parts rotated around the energy in the middle.

"There are still people-" the petite blonde said.

"-no, there aren't. Don't delude yourself, Ms. Liberty. The annihilation wave is twenty seconds away and burning through the forcefield. Don't fight us here and kill us all," the woman in a mock up of the Statesman's outfit said.

"It's time to go. You are the last Vindicator still here," the final figure said, pulling her maroon and black cape about her.

The wall across the room started to disintegrate in flares of white and blue energy. The four last heroines all charged, barely making it through the portal in time. The disintegration wave hit the Portal Corp generator, and they were flung off in an unknown direction of alternate space and time.

No simple appearance on the ground, ready to investigate a mysterious alternate Earth, but a blast that rocketed them out high above the Atlantic seaboard. Three of the heroines took control of their flight with practiced ease.

The giant woman, on the other hand, swore loudly as she slammed into the ground in the middle of a field and made a huge crater. "Damn it. Couldn't you have caught me?" she shouted into the air. The lap of waves on the rough gravel shore was loud in her ears as she brushed clods of dirt out of her cape.

"It was only three hundred feet. You can jump far higher than that yourself," the albino heroine said, letting her dark cape flutter behind her. Not that you could really tell about her coloration, as her costume only allowed her hair and the lower part of her face to be visible.

"She's got a point, Gitanica," the blonde girl wearing red and blue said. She looked more like a preppy cheerleader in a domino mask, even with the sword at her hip. She landed next to the seven foot tall girl. "This doesn't look like Paragon City though. We must have traveled very far dimensionally speaking."

It was a bit too small, a bit to generally run down. Most of the building could not be more than forty stories tall and most were quite a bit shorter. They seemed to cluster together, too, like a huddle of old, angry friends.

"Do you think they have heroes?" the dark-haired woman in the knock-off of Statesman's outfit asked. Blue electricity crackled around her. "What do you think, Futurias?"

"They do now, Charged State. I think I see the local police. I wonder what PRT stands for?" the albino said. She touched down next to the rest on the forlorn field on the shore and the worn asphalt of the road that ran along the edge of the bay. The air was chill and a hint of snow could be seen falling from the dull gray sky.

The sturdy police cruiser pulled up to the edge of the empty lot. The man and woman that came out were a bit of a surprise. No regular beat cops, these two looked like heavy SWAT in their gear.

Charged Stated shared a look Ms. Liberty. "This could be a problem."

"You there! Are you heroes or villains?" the driver called out.

"We're heroes, officer. Is that a problem?" Ms. Liberty called out as she started walking slowly up to the car.

"Not really, but we usually don't run into four new heroes at once. Especially ones that aren't in any of the PRT databases," the other armored officer said.

"We are..." Ms. Liberty looked away even as she tried to rub away a scuff on her white glove.

"-dimensional refugees. We just managed to escape our Earth before it was destroyed," the woman in red, white and blue said, looking quite imposing with the Grecian-styled face plate. "I'm Charged State. This is Ms. Liberty."

"I'm Gitanica!" the huge woman called out. She slammed her fist into the palm of her hand. She looked the most daring with a black 'swimsuit' that bared her thighs and a belt around her waist. She had white armored boots and shoulder-plates and a cape that fluttered behind her. Like Ms. Liberty, she only had a domino mask to conceal her identity.

"And I am Futurias. So you do have super-heroes?" the last heroine asked. She wore an almost full body outfit of black and red in four-sided diamond patterns with a few dashes of silver-white with a belt and shoulder guards. Her eyes and shoulder guards had a glow even under the bright sunlight.

"I- I think this is above our pay grade, Janet. Call it in and have the Protectorate. Armsmaster can talk to them. How many heroes did you have on your Earth?" the male PRT officer asked.

"Um, what was the number from city hall? Like five or six thousand heroes in Paragon City-" Charged State asked the others.

"And they're all gone. Everyone's gone," Ms. Liberty said, tears streaming down her face. Heartrending sobs finally broke free as she bent over while holding her stomach.

Futurias and Charged State looked on uncomfortably, so it was Gitanica that acted. She took three steps, shrinking seven inches with each step and then hugged the older woman tightly, even as she started to cry herself.

The PRT officers listened uncomfortably. They were not trained to deal with this sort of situation exactly.

"Six thousand in a city? God, that must have been a war zone," Janet said to her fellow.

The rumble of a motorcycle was quite welcome, as it heralded the arrival of the armored tinker known as Armsmaster. He was, as always, quite timely. He parked and looked over at the three woman and one teen.

"They said they were dimensional refugees, barely escaped their Earth before it was destroyed," Janet explained.

"Tech-based hero? Interesting?" Futurias said as she studied the halberd.

"Tinker, yes." Armsmaster was studying the group. "How old are they?"

"Ms. Liberty? I think she just turned eighteen. Hey, Gigantic-brat, how old are you?" Charged State called out.

"Gitanica. And I'm fifteen. And a half." The dark-haired girl gave the woman in red and blue a glare even as she stopped shedding tears.

"I'm sure our local Wards team would appreciate a new member. I'm Armsmaster, the leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate," the native Tinker said. "Why don't we head over to the PRT's headquarters and get some information and maybe some food?" Textbook response to refugees was to feed them and keep them occupied.

"Local? You guys are a national team?" Charged State asked curiously.

"Just a bit." The bearded tinker gave them a tight grin at that.

* * *

Aegis zoomed through the air, called in from school for a pretty important reason, he'd guess. Not a battle or an emergency, though, as he was the only one called out. He found Director Piggot in conference room number six.

The reinforced one, in case things came to a fight. It was rarely used and was always ready 'just in case'. Today must be 'just in case' then.

"Aegis, you made good time," Armsmaster said as he nodded his helmeted head in his direction.

"I guess he and Futurias are going to get along fine. They both like their dark red costumes," Charged State said with a bit of humor.

Her outfit looked fairly formal and covered almost every inch of her, Aegis noted. Very patriotic themed.

"He's the current leader of this Wards group? The underage junior hero group?" the woman who wore red, black with silver highlights asked.

"Correct. I think that Gitanica here will probably fit in pretty well," Director Piggot said.

"Gitanica?" Aegis asked, looked at the girl that had to be only five foot four, if that.

The girl smirked as she stood up and then Aegis suddenly found himself staring up at the girl... no, woman. "Yeah. Gitanica."

"I take it you are a brute then?" the armored teen boy asked with a grin.

"You use that term? Yeah. Super strong, invulnerable and I throw a real mean uppercut," Gitanica said as she sat back down, not bothering to shrink down.

"So what's your brute rating, if you don't mind me asking?" Aegis asked.

"Huh? Brute's my job on the team. I'm tough, but I'm one of those sorts that gets faster and stronger as I go along. Unlike miss scrapper over there," the giant woman said.

"We use brute as a baseline for people that are strong and tough. Aegis here is a brute 2 rating, as he runs about two to three times stronger than a normal human," Armsmaster said.

"We categorize by team roles and power types. Charged State is also a brute, using electricity to protect herself while also having super strength. Ms. Liberty is noted as a scrapper, using martial arts and her invulnerability to strike nearly as hard as the brutes. I'm actually the odd one out, as I am a defender," Futurias explained.

"Dark powers are hax," Gitanica said with a grumble and frown. "She's almost as versatile as a controller and a decent force multiplier."

"How do you rank your powers then?" Piggot asked curiously.

"It was all handled on security or threat levels. Paragon City scales things up to level fifty, though some people, break that. I think Futurias and Ms. Liberty are both unofficially Security Level 53. They get all the good support as part of the Freedom Phalanx," Charged State said.

"It gets the big bullseye painted on you, too," Ms. Liberty said in a soft tone. "So you have all the villains trying to kill you for years. And then you die, even if you can take a nuke to your face," the blonde super heroine said in an angry funk, staring at the polished surface of the table.

"Her grandfather was murdered by a supervillain in a bid to destroy our world about four months ago," Futurias said softly. That had been a nasty fight to take down that supervillain out in space as he tried to collapse space and time to let the Rularu into reality.

"That was a hairy fight," Charged State said in a shudder. They had dodged that bullet so much it seemed like destiny. Until they finally failed spectacularly.

Piggot was staring at the albino and the blonde. "So you guys are top tier heroes from where you come from?"

"I was going to take grandfather's place on the Freedom Phalanx, which is the main super team in the USA. And Futurias has been a regular reservist for how many years?" Ms. Liberty asked as she finally looked up at the other woman.

That got her a shrug back.

"Well, both of our teams would like to have you join. I think you would be very good assets," Armsmaster said, sounding sincerely happy.

"I'm game. Beating up badguys is good therapy for me," Charged State said. Anything to distract her from the last sights she had of her super team trying to flee in their hastily repaired spaceship.

"Hell yeah!" Gitanica said happily.

"I- I need some time away from the battle," Ms. Liberty said in a soft tone. Even her grandfather had taken time to grieve.

"We have some therapists if you would like someone to talk to. Are any of you close? For support?" Piggot asked the quartet.

Charged State was frowning. "We're... technically sorta almost related."

That got Ms. Liberty to shoot an angry glare at the woman that dared wear that iconic outfit.

"Perhaps a bit more of an explanation?" the leader of the Brockton Bay PRT asked.

"I'm a modified clone of her grandfather, the Statesman. Probably to be used by the Countess in some of her illegal businesses," Charged State said, still frowning.

That was a bit surprising to the natives.

"I'd suggest just trying to be there. Obviously there's some bad feelings from the past, but I think you should try," Piggot said.

"Hmm." Armsmaster was wondering how to bring up this subject. "Third generation cape? When did this your world's first superheroes show up?"

"Statesman was listed as fighting in both World Wars, wasn't he?" Futurias asked the deceased heroes granddaughter.

"Yeah, but he only gained his power after World War I."

That got a whistle out of Armsmaster. "Almost a hundred years?"

Piggot coughed into her hand to get everyone's attention. "Gitanica, schooling is mandatory. I'd normally work to get you transferred over to Arcadia High School, but you are probably going to be spotted soon. So I'll get you into another school in the city. Probably Winslow High School or My Mother of Mercy Immaculata."

"A catholic school? No way in hell," Gitanica said vehemently. She had never liked that when she was a kid.

"Are you sure? Winslow is a tough school, full of gang members and problem kids," Aegis warned.

"Sounds fine to me," the giant replied.

Aegis chuckled. "One of our members also goes to Winslow. I'll introduce you to Shadow Stalker some time." They will probably get along like a house on fire.

"Do you ladies have any civilian jobs you would like to look at getting back into?" Piggot asked.

The three older heroines shared a quick look. They all shook their heads. They had all been full time heroines.

"So how do you want to do your first patrol?" Aegis asked Gitanica.

"Eh, I usually just go from roof to roof, checking alleys for crooks," the younger girl replied.

"What about you two?" Armsmaster asked Futurias and Charged State.

"We'll probably just fly around. I can avoid glowing and I know for a fact that Futurias can be damn sneaky when she wants," the clone in red and blue said.

"Ms. Liberty? Would you like to come with me? We'll look at some temporary housing and maybe some ID so you can go out," Piggot said as she stood up.

"Flyers are useful. I'll probably have you guys go with Dauntless, Assault and Battery for your first patrols then. Let's go and give you the tour of our base out in the bay," Armsmaster explained as he stood up too.

They nodded at that.

* * *

Gina jammed her hands into her unneeded jacket pockets, blowing a puff of steamy breath into the cold air as she walked towards the front door of Winslow High the next morning. January sucked and she missed the weather controllers in Paragon City that made sure it never snowed or got that cold. This school looked as worn and troubled as she thought it would be, as the 'trouble magnet' school.

She looked sidelong at Terrance Baker, her 'foster' parent. He was the husband of one of the PRT officers. Piggot had managed to get her fostered 'within' the system so that only people in the know were involved.

Terry (as he hated his full name) gave her a nod. "Come on, kiddo. Let's get your paperwork finalized."

"Yeah," she replied. She hated being 'just' Gina again. And she just knew that school was going to suck.

Half an hour later, she had her packet with her information, including her locker location. She walked down the hall, keeping a sharp eye out for the toughs. And there was her locker, two down from the newly painted one.

"Fresh meat, Sophia?" one of the taller girls asked her friend. She was what most people would consider a petite cutie that reminded Gina too much of Ms. Liberty.

"Naw, I hear Hebert is supposed to be back from the hospital finally. I don't want her to think we've forgotten her," her dark skinned, athletic friend said in a gloating voice. "Oh, and here she is."

"Oh, Taylor! It looks like freaking out and going to the hospital actually helped your complexion a little bit," the redhead in the group said in a faux happy voice. "I think I see some of your zits are actually gone now."

"I guess it isn't acting much if you are nuts, but I heard you actually freaked out and attacked the janitor," Sophia said with glee in her voice. "I mean, you were only in that locker a few hours. You'd think you nearly died or something. I mean, it was just filthy like you."

The curly haired girl seemed to sink in on herself and tried to move around them.

The redhead just shook her head. "I guess she really is touched in the head. Can't even talk."

Gina decided she'd had enough of that. "Man, I thought I left the shitheads behind at my last school," Gina called out loudly. "But at least they wouldn't pick on someone just getting back from the hospital.

"Are you sure you want pick her side, shrimp?" Sophia asked as she loomed over Gina.

"Nah. I'm on my own side. I just chose that you aren't on it. Shit head." Gina knew this sort of tough. Back down in the slightest and they'd try to tear you down.

"Ooh. She so scary for being a twig." Sophia moved to go past Gina and back down the hall, her elbow catching Gina's bicep hard. She frowned at the feel, as the girl must have serious muscles for it to be that unyielding.

Gina made an act of rubbing her arm. "Ooh, the violent sort."

They only tittered back in laughter.

"You okay? Um, Hebert, right?" the scruffy looking girl asked, looking up slightly at the taller girl.

"Taylor. Taylor Hebert. Are you new?" the girl asked suspiciously.

"Yeah, by way of being really damn lost. I'm Gina. Word of advice, they'll just keep pulling you down if you don't resist," Gina said as she check her locker and unloaded her lunch box into it.

"That just makes it worse," Taylor said in a muted tone, back to sinking into herself a little bit.

"Just my advice. I'll probably be a target for a bit. See ya, curly," the slightly shorter girl said.

It was during lunch that Gina found out that Taylor was the prime target for all the bullies. And had been shoved into a locker full of tampons and pads. She'd then had to be sedated and taken to the hospital.

Everyone knew it was the trio that had done it, somehow. They just weren't sure how they had picked the lock. Sophia, Emma and Madison. The runner, the model and the 'cutie'.

The bullies did try to trip her down the stairwell, but that didn't work so well when the smaller girl caught the handrail and stopped her fall with a very slight application of super-strength.

Then she got to do the whole big introduction thing with the Wards tonight.

Yay.

* * *

Gina did a quick change after school in an alley and then left, using Gitanica express bounding-ways. She wanted to get a view of Brockton Bay from hundreds of feet up and her corded legs made those super leaps a thing of ease. She only had to be slightly careful on her landings, as Brockton Bay was a lot tighter and compressed than Paragon City was for the most part.

She gave a wave to the flying hero in front of her. With a boom she landed on hard concrete and with a second 'thoom' noise shot back into the air.

Dauntless watched the girl making thousand foot leaps with an obvious practiced ease. And was actually faster than he was currently was flying.

Gitanica landed with a thoom on the ground in front of the PRT Headquarters here in Brockton Bay. It was a heavily reinforced building with a helicopter landing pad next to it. But other than that, it looked quite normal. She waved to a couple of families as she walked through the doors, ducking slightly step in. "Hey, Aegis!" she boomed out. Even had the obligatory gift shop.

He finished signing a photo. "Hello, Gitanica! Ready to head upstairs to meet the rest of the team?"

"She's a Ward?" blurted one ten year old girl in shock.

"Yup! Just joined yesterday," she replied to the small crowd. "Who is all going to be there?"

"All the Wards, the local Protectorate and some bigwigs from the PRT." He led her into the secure 'Tinker' elevator that lifted smoothly up at high speeds.

At the top, they walked down the hall to the viewing windows 'for tours', which had Gitanica raising an eyebrow under her domino mask. In the main area was a whole crowd of kids and adults.

Clockblocker was talking to Futurias as they entered through the security door. "So you guys don't use helmets much?"

The Wards 'base' was a large domed area, with movable partitions for 'private areas' or dorm rooms.

"On occasion, but those two are brutes, so they don't actually need armor. It's pretty redundant for them. As for myself, my shadow powers can protect me from most harm," the albino explained.

Vista looked over at the new girl and whistled. "Wow, she's as tall as they said. Hi, I'm Vista!"

"Hi!" she said as she waved back.

Next to her was the only other female Ward, Shadow Stalker that was frowning under her full mask. Something was nagging about her. "So she's a big fat target," she said disdainfully.

"Good thing I'm invulnerable," the giantess said with a roll of her eyes.

Gallant was frowning. "I thought you said she was fifteen?" he asked Miss Militia.

"I am." With a thought, Gitanica shrunk to her normal height. "My mutation allows me to change size a bit. I was stuck that big for a couple of years-"

"The fuck? You're the twig," Shadow Stalker exclaimed in anger and shock as it suddenly clicked who the girl was.

Gitanica just stared at her for a second in consternation, then parsed the words. "The- twig? How the hell do you know me?" Who was it that had called her that today? At least they hadn't called her flatty.

"Oh, you guys must have met at school. Shadow Stalker goes to Winslow High, too," Aegis said cautiously, suddenly feeling a new tension.

The brute was looking at her much more closely as the adults talked in the background. The dark skin around her eyes clinched it. "Oh, you're that bully that sent that girl Herbert to the hospital."

Shadow Stalker just stared at her, fury bubbling within her. "You little shit."

"She what?" Aegis demanded, suddenly alert and balanced on the balls of his feet.

Piggot blinked at that. She had not heard about this and the school administration should have let her know. "Shadow Stalker? Do you have something you would like to explain?

"Some girl freaked out over a prank, blew it all out of proportion. She's a weak, stupid bitch and blew it all out of proportion," Shadow Stalker said dismissively.

"Well, according to what I heard, she was locked up for hours in a locker filled with tampons and pads that had been left there since before Christmas and had to be tranqed and taken to the hospital. After you and your friends bullied her for over a year. I was warned off from being her friend, because you and Emma told everyone that she doesn't deserve friends," Gitanica said, her fists clenched at her side. She hated-hated bullies with a passion.

"That's bullshit. She's just a weak little introvert that thinks she's better than she is," Shadow Stalker said in a bluff.

"Shadow Stalker, have you been bullying this girl for over a year?" Armsmaster demanded.

"No way, Gitanica's just trying to get me in trouble," the shadow phaser said.

"My lie detector pinged on her statement of innocence, director," Armsmaster said.

"Oh, shit? Armsmaster added a tinker lie detector to his armor?" Clockblocker said. No more trying to bullshit the Protectorate leader. Which meant not doing some of his pranks. Crap.

"Fuck." Shadow Stalker glared at Gitanica, but left her crossbow on her hip. There was no way in hell she was going to even try to take on everyone here. Maybe she could slip away later.

"If you will excuse us, Armsmaster and I need to have a very long chat with Shadow Stalker. Bullying a girl for over a year doesn't exactly make me think she's trying to be a hero. And we might need to talk about her situation. In depth," Piggot said. "Let's go, Shadow Stalker.

Fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck, Sophia Hess chanted mentally. They couldn't send her back to Juvie over a stupid prank, could they?

"So, um, awkward confrontation aside, nice to meet you, kid," Assault called out.

"So what are your powers? Other than being big and tough?" the woman wearing an outfit that had a metallic circuit woven into it.

"Pretty much just physically buffed stuff. I can jump and run fast. I picked up a few tricks from Ghost Widow, but really I'm just a brute," Gitanica explained.

"We have a lot of 'brutes' on the team now," Velocity noted in humor. "So my place as speedster is secure."

"We'll have to go for a race, then. I'm not the super-best at the running speed thing, but I can hit a couple of hundred miles per hour," the newest Ward said with a smile.

Gallant was nodding to himself. "So we got a decent amount of new people. Any of you do party tricks?"

That got a snort out of Charged State. "I can recharge your electronics, if that helps."

All of the wards looked at Futurias, who slowly noted them all looking at her. "Most people get creeped out by my darkness. So no tricks. I have been known to go clubbing at times."

"How about you, Gitanica?" Vista asked.

"I just get big, sorry." She gave them a shrug.

* * *

Taylor was having the best day of her new life. Once she had managed to drag herself to school, she had found out that Sophia was no longer attending Winslow High and that Emma and Madison were suspended for two weeks!

A couple of the regular hanger ons were still around and made some nasty comments, but even that seemed fairly unfocused. They tried to pick on the new girl, but she was willing to give as good as she got. In fact, she could be rather mean at times.

They had barely said two words, but Taylor finally had a little bit of hope. The new girl hadn't told her to just shut up or go away.

After school, Taylor just walked out the main door like everyone else. No verbal attacks, no tripping and her outfit wasn't messed up and she actually had all of her items in her backpack. She was surprised to discover that the new girl was walking in her general direction outside on the streets.

"Oh, you live this way?" Taylor asked.

"Yeah. Foster parents." Gina seemed to be thinking hard, her expression none too happy looking. "My mother died recently."

"And your father?" Taylor asked curiously as they walked past a couple of members of the ABB spray painting on the wall of a store in an alley.

"Don't know him. Just a John, but he's probably dead, too. Eh," Gina replied with a shrug.

"Oh. Sorry." Taylor felt a stab of pain for the loss of her own mother.

They walked for another five minutes Gina turned off down an alley.

"My foster's place is this way. Probably see you later. 'morrow," the scruffy haired girl said.

"See you, Gina." That was civil. Almost friendly. Well, not really. Taylor was about a hundred feet further along when she heard a crash from the alley. She took off at a sprint back the direction she came.

In the alley, she found the large garbage container had a two foot wide dent deep in its side, but nothing else. With a quiet footsteps, because she did not want to become a crime statistic, she moved quickly to the back lot behind the boarded up businesses.

Gina was kicking a can, sending it across the snow frosted ground. She looked around casually but missed Taylor in the shadows with just a bit of her head sticking out

And then with a tap on a bracelet on her left wrist, she was suddenly wearing a black superhero outfit with a short cape. She crouched down and then with a soft thoom, shot off into the air in an arc.

Taylor just stared in shock at the dwindling speck in the air as it flew up and then down and out of sight.

Gina was a cape? And not one that she recognized either. So maybe, just maybe, her idea to become a hero herself wasn't so stupid? Taylor disappeared down the alley and headed home.

* * *

"This is dumb," Gitanica said as she looked over the heads of her teammates later that next week.

"Typical PR stuff," Vista said in a bored tone. "Have to do this at least once a month."

'This' was the Wards visiting the local mall for a meet and greet. They walked in to the main food court area where a little stage had been set up. They waved to the crowd of people visiting in the evening. Their Protectorate guests were Triump and Charged State.

The mayor of Brockton Bay shook hands all around, winking at Triumph. "My, they grow them big in your neck of the woods," he said to Gitanica.

"Um, sure," the girl said uncomfortably.

After a few speeches, they were let to wander around. All of the fast food places were offering a free meal, which all the wards took advantage of. Vista grabbed some pizza, while Whiz Kid was a burger eater. Aegis, Gallant and Shadow Stalker all ordered Chinese, while Gitanica grabbed a gyro with fries.

Shadow Stalker threw her a glare as they retired to a curtained off area so they could unmask enough to eat.

"Got a problem?" Gitanica asked.

"Not that I can act on," the other girl said.

"You want to take a shot at me, I'm sure we can find somewhere to beat each other up." Gitanica took a big bite of her gyro.

"Really?" Shadow Stalkers dark brown eyes narrowed at the girl. "You aren't going to complain to Piggot or Armsmaster, are you?"

"Nah. Figure the rest of the team can watch to make sure we don't go overboard," the bigger girl said. "It's good stress relief."

"It's against my better judgement," Aegis said thoughtfully. "But I can see how it might help. I'll just let Armsmaster know ahead of time."

"Where did Charged State go?" Vista asked as she looked around. She was wearing a light-weight mask even with her helmet removed.

It was Triumph that answered. "She decided she wanted to follow a couple of shady character. I guess she can do a stealth thing with light from her electricity."

"Ah, we're missing out on all the fun," Gitanica said with a pout.

That got a laugh out of Clockblocker and Vista.

"You aren't exactly stealthy, Gitanica," Vista said with a grin on her face. At Gitanica's answering grin, she had the odd idea that she was laughing at them for some reason.

They found out later that evening that Charged State had followed two of the ABB gang members back to a warehouse where she had overheard that Lung was going to be.

* * *

"I am not a fan of stakeouts," Gallant said. "Especially with a Trigonometry test first thing tomorrow." The fact that Shadow Stalker was also in that class did not help his stress levels. She was feeling nearly murderous almost all the time since she had been forcibly transferred. And his armor, even the faux tinker armor, was cold at night in winter.

Gitanica was not tired or cold in the least. She had switched to one of her alternate (and totally different) costumes, a bright white outfit with a long cape. "I see some cars arriving out front."

The cars had disgorged a large group of mostly Asian men and a few women. The man in the middle was wearing a metal mask as he headed towards the warehouse.

Gallant nodded. "I see them, too. Gallant to Armsmaster, looks like Lung has arrived."

The click onto the secured radio heralded the leader of the adult team on the radio. "Acknowledged. Just remember, this is reconnaissance only. We will only engage Lung if at all absolutely required."

"Yes, sir!" Gallant said fervently. He had absolutely no desire to get into a fight with the dragon-man. Even if Miss Militia, Assault and Battery were here as backup down the street, parked in an alley in a PRT swat vehicle.

"I could take him," Gitanica said under her breath.

The sound of pins falling behind them was their only warning as the ABB assassin Oni appeared and dropped two grenades and then went on to stab Gallant in the back.

"Grenades!" Gallant bellowed out in panic.

Gitanica took two steps and then flopped down on the grenades as they went off.

"I liked that outfit," she complained as she got back up. "You okay there, Gallant? Gallant?" She looked over at him, seeing the blood pooling under his prone body.

Oni was staring down at them from the next roof over. His demon mask seemed to be staring at the girl intently. Gitanica only looked slightly singed.

"Man down. Engaging the freak in the demon mask," Gitanica said shooting off the ground in a short thirty foot hop, punching through demon-masked assassin in a spatter of dust. "The hell?"

"That's Oni," Armsmaster called out over the radio. "He's a teleporter that leaves behind short term combat clones. Can you perform first aid on Gallant?"

"Not while fighting the damn teleporting stalker!"

Another figure snapped into existence. "Futurias, reporting in." Life tap active, initiating Twilight Grasp even as she reached out and pulled at his life force as the mental menome mantra activated her powers on the surprised Oni. The teleporting assassin felt a small wave of weakness, then had teleported away.

Gallant coughed, spitting up blood in his helmet. "Ugh. Anyone get the name of that brute?"

"You'll live," the albino said flatly.

"When did you get here?" Assault asked as he flashed over in a blur of speed, Battery only a moment behind him. "I thought you were back at base?"

"I am a teleporter. So the Oni mask is my foe." With a snap, Futurias disappeared again. And again, suddenly chasing after Oni who kept dropping grenades that failed to hit the woman who was keeping up with him.

"Protectorate," a distorted voice called out from below. Lung was already growing and wisps of steam were drifting up from his bare skin. He charged suddenly at Armsmaster.

"Lung's incoming," Armsmaster said, frowning as he was forced to dodge backwards, deflecting with his polearm. "He's powering up quickly. Everyone-"

"Kowabunga!" Gitanica shouted, landing with a boom right next to the surprised Lung, looking him eye to eye. "Cool scales." Then she plowed a massive double-fisted punch into his face and knocked him back two feet. Then she stomped the ground hard, smashing a crater into the ground and knocking Lung back a bit further.

The Asian gang leader snarled, even as he felt a moment of confusion. From Armsmaster and the arriving Assault and Battery, he felt his power reacting as it normally would. Against this strange woman in white... nothing. He slammed a massive fist into her face, only to blink as she took the hit while grinning.

The gut punch lifted him off the ground slightly even as flames erupted from his silvery form. With a roar, Lung breathed fire over her and got a quick jab to his face and a right cross coming the other way for his efforts.

"Shooo-eee. The girl's got gumption. Doesn't follow orders at all, but I'd say I've taken a small shine to her brashness," Assault said, even as he zoomed in and punched Lung in his extending ribcage. He zipped back out of range before he could feel the flames.

A second later, Battery did the same on the other side, even as Gitanica slammed a huge haymaker into Lung's battered face.

"Bitchssss," Lung said even as he became even larger and stronger. His next punch was easily twice as strong as his first attack during this fight.

"Ooh. The lisp, its scares me, mommy!" Gitanica catcalled even as she channeled her rage, her fury into even greater ferocity. Her next double-fist downward smash actually caused Lung's knee to buckle slightly.

"Ssssstrongggur?" Lung asked, then smiled as his metal mask melted off his face. He blasted a much hotter fire into her face.

Gitanica just smiled as she punched his face even harder right back. "You bet, asswipe. Strong enough to take you down. Like your mother goes down on Kent Street." Hmm. Not the best taunt, she thought to herself.

Lung paused for just a second, then roared in fury as he realized what she was saying.

"You know, taunting the guy that fought Leviathan to a standstill on his lonesome is probably not a smart idea," Battery said even as she held herself still, circuits glowing across her body.

"Creative though. Lung's going to rip her a new breathing hole though, right where her head used to be," Assault said with a cheery tone and a wide grin. "Ready, luv?"

"Now!"

The duo charged in again, both of them hitting Lung's ribs and then his head back and forth for a second before having to retreat.

Amsmaster was sending blasts out from his polearm, but knew he was just annoying Lung by this time. Gitanica was doing a good job of matching him for the moment (which was a total surprise, he had to admit). But this was just going to get worse for them.

Lung was knocked forward as a rocket from Miss Militia hit him in between his shoulder blades. And finally he could feel his power grow again, wings ripping out of his back even as his form became more sauron in shape. Another blast of fire caught the giant woman in the face, leaving her open for both of his own fists to slam into her stomach.

"Shit. Haven't been hit that hard since the Reichsman," Gitanica said, wiping blood from her lip. She slammed both of her fists into his dragon head again, whipping it around.

"Getting too hot for me, Armsmaster," Battery called out.

Up on the rooftops, Gallant was firing his blasts at the dodging Oni as he and Futurias flashed across the rooftops in a game of cat and mouse teleport. Oni had quit dropping grenades. Futurias was cloaked in some sort of shadow forcefield and was harder to spot as she was half-shadow.

And... now, Futurias thought to herself. Pulsing black energy shot out in a clump from her hands, catching the new Oni on the edge of the roof. Then a larger black wave of shadows slammed the paralyzed assassin off the roof top. With a thud, he slammed into the ground and into unconscious.

"Got you," the albino in black and maroon said. "And Gitanica went and charged the arch-villain head on. Of course."

Lung slammed his fists in a brutal, one-two-three-four combos even as Gitanica tried to fend off his attack. He was going to rip the woman apart in front of the rest of the-

Shadows engulfed him in the most disorienting manner, then ground suddenly seeped up a cloying dark tar that seemed to sap even more strength. And he saw the new figure, flying above the ground, pulling energy from him even as he noted that the giant woman was visibly less hurt.

"Took you long enough, defender," Gitanica said with a wide smile on her face as she kept pounding on Lung.

"We need to pull back. He's starting to get to the level where he's going to be a threat to the entire block," Armsmaster called out.

"But we can take him! He's got to have a top level," the newest ward called out.

"No, we can't. And this is nowhere near his top power," the bearded leader shouted back even as he had to back up another fifteen feet front the blistering heat.

A bolt of blue lightning slammed home as Charged State finally arrived. Electricity crackled over her body, hurting his metallic scales. "I'll hold him off long enough for the rest of you to get to safety," she called out, slamming her fists down upon his head with quite a bit of force.

"And what's going to stop Lung from ripping you apart?" Miss Militia called out, firing a heavy anti-material rifle at the huge fiery dragon.

Lightning slammed home from the sky upon Charged State. After they blinked their eyes, they realized that she had turned into a humanoid figure of pure lightning, slugging it out with the dragon.

"Alright, everyone! Let's go," Armsmaster called out angrily.

Lung was too focused on hitting the living lightning bolt in front of him, only noticing that he was starting to lose some of his strength as there were less parahumans around. In fact, it felt like there were none, even as another lightning fist scorched his jaw.

Charged State felt her energy state finally starting to destabilize after several minutes, so rocketed straight up into the air at full speed and then off towards the south and downtown.

"Cowarz! Cowarz!" Lung roared in fury. He turned his back and then started to walk past the his burning warehouse. This would set him back a lot, so he would have to find a way to recoup his loss. He would lose face if he did not respond

With a 'bzzz-zap' Charged State reverted to her physical form, fell thirty feet with a heavy thud and then skidded across the rooftop.

She lay panting for several minutes. "Ouch," she said in a pained voice.

* * *

"What part of 'do not engage Lung' did you not understand?" Armsmaster asked the teen in front of him.

"The part where we were attacked by a teleporting assassin and things went to shit. Sir." Her sarcasm could have cut a fatal wound if it was a weapon.

"Don't sass me. You could have got yourself killed," the leader of the Protectorate snapped out. "Lung is only not considered a S-class threat because he follows some of the unspoken rules. He might be a crook, a thug and a violent maniac, but he knows not to rock the boat too much."

"What the hell? That Oni guy actually attacked us first, we just defended ourselves," Gitanica shouted right back.

Futurias had her arms crossed in front of her. "There had better not be a problem with us defending ourselves."

"No, there is not," Miss Militia said, interceding before Armsmaster could step into it further. "But we do ask you to try and be understanding that we know our foes a bit better than you. Lung has faced off against the whole team and reinforcements like the Triumvirate."

"So a top tier archvillain," Futurias mused aloud.

Gallant was just staring at them in bemusement. "Please tell me this isn't normal for you guys?"

"Nah, only every couple of weeks," Gitanica said in amusement, her bruised face had a wide smile on it.

"Are you going to be able to go to school in the morning?" he asked worriedly.

"This should be mostly gone by morning," the younger girl said with a shrug.

"And I thought Aegis was a masochist," the armored teen said with a groan and a facepalm.

"I don't enjoy being hurt, dumbass," Gitanica said as she glared at the boy.

"Can't you heal her?" Battery asked from the sideline where she and Assault were leaning up against the wall of the Ward's base.

"Tapping into friends life force to heal someone else is usually considered assault," Futurias explained in an almost flat voice.

"I'm not volunteering! Just saying," Assault said while waving his arms around.

Futurias looked confused as she stared at him. "That's humor, right? He was trying to be funny?" she asked Charged State.

"Yes, it was," Gitanica said in interruption with a sigh.

"I don't see the humor. It seemed silly," she said. "Or was that why it was humorous?"

"You need to get out more, Futurias," Charged State said with a hint of sadness.

"Do you need to talk to a psychiatrist, Futurias? Most people don't have problems understanding humor," Armsmaster said with a bit of worry in his voice per the normal doctrine for the Protectorate.

"It's just something I'm learning. It was not part of my initial knowledge that was downloaded into me upon creation," she said, shrugging her shoulders.

"I so called it! Robot!" Assault held out his hand to Battery. "Pay up, darling!"

"I am not a robot," Futurias snapped out angrily, showing a strong emotion finally. "I was a biological weapon until I rebelled against my creator. I'm am at least 95 % human genome still."

"Whut?" Gitanica said. She looked at Charged State. "Did you know that?"

"I'd heard rumors. I thought it was as likely as the fact she was from thousands of years in the future," red-white and blue garbed heroine said.

"Her name's Futurias," Battery noted.

"I traveled a one way path from a far off future. So it's not exactly useful now. I was still trying to figure out why the Menders thought you could only time travel a few thousand years back and forth," Futurias explained.

No time machine, but knew some time travellers, Armsmaster noted to himself. "Back on track here, Gitanica, you are off rotation for a few days until you are up to full. Since you said you will recover on your own, I'm going to let pain be a teacher here. If someone says don't, at least try to listen and understand. Okay?"

"'kay," the teen replied in a laid back, sarcastic tone.

Teens were going to be the death of him, the tinker lamented to himself. "Alright. Everyone, be back at nine in the morning. I'm sure Director Piggot will have something to say about the major property destruction that happened tonight."

Miss Militia gave them a shrug. "She's never happy at property damage. It was just some abandoned warehouses, so she really don't have a lot to complain about. And we caught Oni. He's a murderous villain that needed to be off the streets."

"Yay. We caught the mook," Gitanica said in a very deadpan tone.

"He seemed to be more under-boss material," Charged State noted aloud.

Teens, Armsmaster lamented again. "Which was a good job, Gallant. Great initiative."

"Thanks, sir!" Gallant gave him a thumbs up.

* * *

Jessica Duncan was not a terribly happy girl. She had a duffel bag over her shoulder, Excalibur jabbing into her shoulder on occasion. While the PRT was quite happy to help with identification and a fake background, they only gave her a small stipend as she was not 'one of their heroes'. She had heard that Gitanica was actually earning pay towards her own college fund.

"So what made you decide to look at our University of Massachusetts* here in Dorchester?" her guide asked, rubbing her gloved hands in the cold.

"Oh, it's just pretty close and I really do need to get into college. I'll have to try and find a part time job, Tara." Or join the local Brockton Bay Protectorate. Which was looking more like a requirement than something she wanted to do. It was only about ten minutes flight away.

The engineering building's top level suddenly exploded. Almost instantly people started screaming and running in a panic.

Tara pulled out her fairly large cell phone and dialed 911. "Oh my god! Why would someone-"

A red, blue and gold blur shot off into the air as Jessica's duffel bag thudded to the ground, interrupting the guide.

"Jessica?" The young intern looked around, not believing what must have happened. The girl must have been a cape!

Ms. Liberty flew in through a shattered window, looking around desperately for survivors. She zipped along at a quite brisk float down the hallway, heading to the epicenter of the blast.

"Ohgod-ohgod-ohgod-ohgod-" a young woman was repeating over and over. The half-Asian girl with blue eyes looked panicked as she sat in front of a cone of destruction. It looked like someone had set off a claymore in the direction away from her.

It was pretty obvious that she may have been part of the attack here, Ms. Liberty noted to herself. Time to see if she could stop someone from panicking and becoming a villain. "My name is Ms. Liberty. Let's get you to safety!" she called out in as comforting tone as possible.

"But I killed them," Rebecca Chang said, still stunned at her own actions.

"You look unhappy about it too. Come on, let's go and try to sort it all out. Trust me, I'm a hero," Ms. Liberty said in a soothing tone.

"You aren't another one of Empire Eighty-Eight's goons are you? Ruining my work?" the student demanded even as she stood up and staggered a bit away up. She didn't have any backup weapons!

"Those are the white supremacist jerks? No way in hell. I've made it sort of my mission in life to beat up neo-Nazi thugs," Ms. Liberty said fervently.

"They won't put me down? Steal my work?" the woman asked with tears running down her face. Or ruin her?

"Not if I can help it." Ms. Liberty held out her white gloved hand.

Coughing from the fire that was spreading rapidly, the student took the offer. In moments, they were flying outside.

"I've got to go back, help everyone I can. But I'll be back and we can talk. Okay?" At the woman's tentative nod, Ms. Liberty shot back into the air and back into the building.

She had more people to save.

(*Specifically changed to make this part actually make plausible sense)

* * *

Gina nodded to Taylor as they walked to school a blustery gray morning. Her hands were stuffed in her coat's pocket. "Yo, Taylor."

"Hey, Gina," the taller girl said as they fell in step beside her. "I, uh, heard that Emma and Madison are due back from their suspension finally. I have a hard time imagining that they actually got punished. The admin guys looked like they were just going to ignore it entirely."

"Sophia's friends, right?" Gina thought back a bit. "The redhead is Emma, right? I'm not too worried about them."

"What happened to Empire Eight-Eight wannabe that threatened to beat you up when you called him a racist when you were going to your history class?" Taylor asked even as she hunched her shoulders against the cold wind off the bay. She had to go to her own English class.

"I broke his arm." Gina waited for the stare of disbelief from the other girl. "No, I asked him if he proved his superiority by beating up girls. And then his girlfriend kicked him in the nuts and dropped him like a bad habit."

Taylor snorted in laughter, then looked mortified. She looked away intently at nothing in particular.

They walked along for a few minutes quietly, the crunch of the frost loud in their ears.

"Say, Gina? What would you do if you got super powers?" Taylor asked curiously.

Gina snorted softly in frustration. That seemed to be all kids at this school talked about some days. "Oh, I probably would go nuts, rampage through the neighborhood, get beat up by some lame third stringer hero, get thrown in some super-max prison for hardcore supervillains, then get broken out by some fascist bastard and be used as a superthug muscle until that same lame third stringer knocks some sense into my head. Then I'd be a screwed up hero that likes to beat up people."

Taylor's eyes were wide in shock as she took in the strangely specific and odd answer. "Um, okay. I just sorta thought about being a hero like Alexandria?"

"A leader, to be praised, always looked up to? She's probably so fucked in the head its not funny." Everyone had hangups, in Gina's mind. Her's were just more blatant.

Taylor opened her mouth, but realized she never really heard of Alexandria ever doing anything normal or fun, just being one of the big leaders of the Protectorate and the Triumvirate. "Huh, never thought of it that way."

"Wow, we're gone for a little while and Taylor actually has a friend again. I guess even a loser like you can manage to not screw up everything," a cloyingly sweet voice said as they entered the main doors to Winslow.

"Emma," Taylor said cautiously. "Gina just is being polite. We don't even have a lot in common." Except maybe super-powers.

"So you continue to be the loser of Winslow High," the redhead sneered. Madison just nodded her head at that point.

Taylor's eyes had hardened at that. "Yeah, but you lost your thug. And I think the administration is actually on to you now. So I wonder how long it will be before you get suspended again?" she said as bravely as she could.

"You little bitch-"

"Miss Barnes. Do you have a problem?" a woman's voice said from her right.

"Uh, no Mrs. Tenegall," Emma said a lot less vigorously.

"Then why don't you get to class, before I have to write you up again?" the stout older hispanic woman asked. She gave Gina and Taylor a glare. "You too."

* * *

The black garbed teen feinted with a punch to the face, then shadow stepped through the retaliation. She re-materialized and kicked her opponents knee, hard with her steel reinforced combat boot.

It was like kicking a steel beam. Ow.

Vista sat in between Aegis and Gallant, while Clockblocker just leaned on the wall next to them.

"They really aren't hurting each other, are they?" the teen time stopper asked the group.

"Shadow Stalker really doesn't have anything dangerous enough except her crossbow and bolts, while Gitanica can't hit her very easily," Vista replied as she nodded her head.

"She also has to hold back in case she hits Shadow Stalker," Aegis noted aloud. "So she's not fighting at her full ability."

Gallant nodded. "She was much faster and harder hitting against Lung."

That got a shiver from Vista. She couldn't believe that a Ward actually got into a fight (and wanted to fight!) with that scary monster.

"Are you done beating on my face?" Gitanica asked snidely. "I'm sure your fists need some more bruises."

"Not yet. Going to try and hurt you a little bit, but we might have to call for Panacea," Shadow Stalker said, a smile in her voice. She charged in again, switching a slightly more circular and spinning style of hits.

They weren't hurting the invulnerable brick at all, but this might she thought to herself. Shadow Stalker twirled around in her phased state then turned solid while her cape was still inside Gitanica's right arm.

"Argh!" the much taller girl said clutching her arm that had curled up uselessly. The cape ripped as the edge was pulled out of her arm by Shadow Stalker with a yank.

"First blood," the phaser said mockingly. That was so worth ruining her cape for.

Gitanica was seeing a bit red as her rage and fury were starting to take over. She charged over and punched at Shadow Stalker again to force her to phase away. Then as she was just starting to turn solid Gitanica stomped the ground hard enough to shatter the frozen dirt in the abandoned field.

Shadow Stalker realized just a moment too late what was going to happen and suddenly found herself smashed off the ground and flung ten feet away by the frozen clods. Her armor kept her from taking serious wounds, but she was out like a light.

"Last bloods the important one, bitch." She stared at the other girl. "Think she's just KO'ed." She clutched her arm as her blood pounded in her ears. She felt her powers starting to heal the damage slowly.

"Aw, shit. Armsmaster is going to pin my ears back," Aegis said as he ran over to Shadow Stalker to verify she was actually alive.

"Uhhh," the black-garbed girl said as her eyes blinked open. "What happened?"

"You got knocked silly. You okay?" Aegis asked.

The young woman sat up, groaning in protest. "I think so. Damn, that sucked."

"I'd ask what you were thinking, but I'm pretty sure it was 'I need to hurt her to prove I'm still the meanest bad ass on the team,' right?" Aegis asked.

"Screw you, Aegis. You can be a royal jerk at times," she replied scathingly. She knocked his hand away and then stood up with a hiss of anger.

"My sleeve? Damn, this was a Sergio special and everything. He does... did the best superhero uniforms," Gitanica complained as she finally noticed that the long, floppy sleeve was just gone. "They shrink and grow with me and everything."

"A superhero costume designer? That's cool," Vista said enthusiastically. Shadow Stalker got beat up! Fun!

"He's one of the best designers that Icon had on staff. Probably one of the better perks of being an official hero of Paragon that you got to go over and get new outfits when you were deemed to have done enough heroic deeds," Gitanica said with a sad smile on her face. She then grimaced. "Much better than the Facemakers in the Rogue Isle." She gave a shudder at that.

"How bad can they be?" Clockblocker asked, amusement in his voice. He was obviously finding this all terribly humorous.

"Oh, they are part of Doctor Vhazilok's group. Kills people or steals cadavers and makes techno zombies out of them. The doctor himself made a super-armor suit out of bodies. Ewwwwww," Gitanica said with a totally disgusted look on her face.

"Zombies? Please say they have to do more than bite you to make more?" Gallant asked with a theatrical shiver.

"They have to add cyber implants, so no," Gitanica said with a roll of her eyes.

"Back to base. I'll likely get chewed out, but it was my call and Armsmaster okayed the 'spar'," Aegis called out.


	2. New Paragons 1-1

Charged State flew casually through the air over Brockton Bay in the evening, her keen eyes watching the ebb and flow of humanity as they went about their business below. Long training had her noting when pairs of 'thug' would wander down alleyways.

Just like back in Paragon City, almost half were up to something. Most were just tagging their neighborhood, but she had stopped three muggings already.

So when she saw a man get thrown away down the alley and against a wall to land in a heap, she adjusted her flight to circle around so that she could see down that particular alleyway. There was a masked figure that seemed to be yelling at a vagrant. Not that he was much better dressed.

Skidmark, a gang leader with the power to shoot people away from him. The dark-skinned man with a bandanna mask on had turned away and was walking down the alley.

Repulsion effects weren't that hard to resist, especially as it looked she could just float above the ground. A moment's thought had her overhead and then she just cut her flying power as all of her energy started to channel through the air around her. The crackle-pop of electricity gave the villain just a moments warning so he looked up just in time to see her land with a painful thud right in front of him.

"Ah, god damn fucking wonderful," Skidmark said, instantly trying to shoot the star-spangled wearing heroine away. She didn't move, which shocked him (more than the little arcs of electricity from her). "The fuck?"

He did not even notice that she was not on the ground. Not the brightest sort, but could be a bit dangerous. She rabbit punched his nose lightly, sending him staggering slightly. The carefully gauged punch to his jaw laid him out.

That was when the garbage pile leaped up and attacked her, burying her in in a pile of pure filth. Mush chuckled, as he loved drowning the pretty heroes in muck. He chortled and laughed.

Charged State raised a fist as high as she could to pull it out of the muck, then slammed it down hard, shaking both building next to her as she made a ten foot wide crater and splashed Mush's trash onto both walls. Before he could could recover, a massive haymaker slid his real body thirty feet up the wall to smash into the bottom of a fire escape before he plopped down on the ground.

A click to her earbud got her in contact with the PRT dispatcher. "This is Charged State. I have apprehended two of the Merchant parahumans. Skidmark and Mush, I believe."

"Could you repeat that, Charged State?" the dispatcher replied, sounding a bit surprised. After it was repeated, the dispatcher replied with some orders. "Stay on site as reinforcements are sent to help contain them."

"Of course." Charged State stomped on the ground next to Mush, splatting him on the wall again. No teleport to prison tags. How annoying.

"You can't really hurt me," Mush stated woozily.

"I'm just trying to arrest you." Let's see if this would work. Both hands slammed together with a massive clap, louder than a jet engine.

The pile of trash just shifted back to a somewhat human form, groaning on the ground.

Charged State nodded her head as he seemed to finally give up. A soft scraping sounded from above gave her just enough time to look up as someone dumped a trashcan full of garbage out the window and onto her.

"I really don't like this city," she grumbled. At least it wasn't a cancer on humanity like the Rogue Isles had been. That had been casually horrific everywhere.

Rather than just in the alleys of Paragon City, she admitted ruefully. It was just annoying that the average person seemed more sullen and mean. More like the barely civilized people under Lord Recluse.

The SWAT truck finally arrived and sprayed down both villains. They seemed to be quite good at this part, if not the frontline fighters that the PPD were back in her reality. (Now those were cops that could go toe-to-toe with just about anyone. And might win).

Shaking her head, Charged State hoped that the other 'refugees' were having a better time of it.

* * *

The music was quite loud, giving the albino woman a reason to smile as she pulled her leather jacket a little tighter over her fishnet shirt. The doorman gave her a look from twenty feet back in the line.

"Name?" he asked, contrary to the rest of the line.

"Althea," she responded, using the name she had picked up when she landed in Paragon City.

His eyebrows rose higher. "You're... kind of pale?"

"Do you have a problem with albinos?"

"Ah, no. Not at all. Head on in, miss," the rough looking man said.

Althea raised an eyebrow behind her pair of dark glasses as she noted some very odd beings in the back on an upper floor. They were not very obvious and mostly in the shadows, but were leaning over the balcony. One of them was leaning up against a 'hazard-zone' taped off three foot section. They looked like some mutants. Off to the side was woman who, while not wearing a suit, was wearing an outfit that looked more serious than the party goers.

She grabbed a drink that she remembered liking the flavor of, paying with her generic bank card that Piggot said most people did not know even worked with the PRT. After about ten minutes, she wandered out to the dance floor, trying to lose herself into the beat.

It wasn't working, though. The music was good, the flashing lights and darkness were set up well. Young people danced and gyrated, smiles on their face. She should have been enjoying herself.

But her friends weren't here. After half an hour, the conflicting emotions were starting to cause her to develop a headache. Light. Darkness.

She had to get out. Inside was suffocating, trapped and confining. Out.

The cold air outside was a relief as she stalked past the line a bit unsteadily. She turned towards a wide alley way and once she was out of sight, leaped into the air in a flash of blue-white. Futurias stared at her white-glowing hands, then with a mental 'snap' nodded. Of course glowing was correct. A tap on her bracelet brought out her white and navy-blue costume out of storage. Energy surged through as she glowed even more, rocketing into the air.

Ten minutes later, she saw some members of the ABB beating up a blonde girl who was only wearing her bra for a top. She was crying and holding her hands above her head as they beat her with long sticks, leaving whip marks and her crying out in pain. The other end of the alley was blocked by a large dump truck.

Futurias land with a massive thud, glowing incandescently. "Leave her alone!"

"Ventilate the bitch!" the leader of the trio shouted through his handkerchief mask.

Twenty second later, after emptying their guns they were just make clicking noises and Futurias was totally unharmed.

"My turn, creeps," she said, unleashing a powerful bolt of white energy at the first thug, sending him flying. Three steps had her suddenly in melee, a glowing fist knocked the other guy two feet into the air. Her eyes then blasted a weaker beam that dropped the last one to the ground.

Her glow softened as she stepped over to the battered woman. "Are you all right?" Futurias held out a white glove to help her up.

The woman did not look up. "Sure. Thank you."

Futurias frowned. That was not a normal response-

Lung slammed into the ground right next to her. "Die, Purity." He buried his fist deep into her stomach, robbing her of breath. Her jaw cracked from his vicious right cross.

The stunned heroine staggered three steps before Lungs spinning left claw that plunged under her rib cage with a squelch. She looked down to see the hand, but it was inside her chest.

The Asian gang leader pulled out his hand and let her collapse onto her face. He turned to the blonde 'victim'. "You can leave, Carlina. Your bonus will be delivered by Hujong as normal."

The hooker nodded her head rapidly even as she ran down the alley.

Lung looked down at the figure on the ground, draped in her cape... Cape? When did the damn glow-bug start to wear a cape?

A massive double-helix of energy hit him in the back, smashing him into the dump truck as he felt his power suddenly feel a proper threat. "Purity? Who would have thought there were two dumb glowing and flying women in Brockton Bay." He pushed off the dented side of the heavy metal truck to stand up fearlessly to glare at the woman in the air.

"A trap for me?" Purity said, feeling a cold chill up her back. She could be just as dead as that girl, though she would have been a bit more suspicious. She narrowed her glowing eyes in fury.

Then the sound of alien chimes, striking discordantly as the crumpled form on the ground started to glow with the light of a star as the figure floated into the air. Her wounds were leaking energy, but you could see the energy filling in or moving the parts back into place.

With a snap-ring, Futurias landed back on the ground with her own glowing eyes glaring at Lung.

"That... was a mistake," Futurias said as layers of glowing energy formed transparent bubbles around her.

Lung just smiled under his metal mask. "I will rip your head off this time."

"Purity, right? Shall we work together?" the glowing woman on the ground asked the flyer.

Purity smile, just about the only thing you could see of her features. "Sure."

Futurias rushed in to melee with a leap, to smash down upon Lung with blasting force. He took the blow on his forearms, feeling the bones crack slightly, healing very quickly.

"You know, firing into melee doesn't work with large energy beams," Purity noted loudly.

"True. I have a solution," the albino said. With a crackle of blue-white energy, she turned into a ball of energy that continued to unleash bursts of white energy. "I am immaterial, so you can not hurt me."

A massive double helix of white energy blasted right through the energy being, even as Lung was hit in the stomach with a second massive burst to his stomach. Futurias spun off three globs of energy that exploded with steel shattering force.

Lung was finding hitting the blob of energy in front of him not very effective, so blasted out a massive burst of fire up at Purity as she flew overhead. She yelled out in pain and zoomed out of the flames. The glowing blob of energy next to Lung blasted him with stunning light and then shot a beam at Purity that hit her head on.

"What was that?" Purity shouted out surprise and fear.

"Healing energy," Futurias called out as she continued to pour on the blasts, cooking part of Lung's shoulder.

An even bigger blast of spiraling energy shattered a wing even as it grew out.

"Daaaaahm trumpssss," Lung hissed, as he realized this was too close of a fight. He smashed a fist into the ground, tore it wide open and then dove into the revealed sewers.

The flying parahuman shot a blast into the hole. Purity hovered in closer, looking like she was thinking of heading in.

"Don't bother following him. Probably trapped or just not safe for us flyers," Futurias said as she re-materialized with one fist pushed to the ground from her kneeling position. She stood back up and then floated off the ground.

"So is this where you attack me?" Purity asked threateningly. Her normal mode of resolving conflicts wouldn't work this time. She couldn't just fly away because this woman was a flyer too.

"Why should I? Unless you are a villain about to do a crime?" Futurias asked curiously.

"No. Not any more."

"Oh? Trying to redeem yourself? Very cool! If you need help, just ask. You need to do more high profile stuff though," Futurias said with an honest smile on her face.

Purity just blink-blinked at the strange woman. "That's it? Most people would think that a villain trying to become a hero is stupid."

"But you do want to be a hero? To do good?"

The older woman nodded slowly.

"Then you work towards it," Futurias stated. She held out her hand, which Purity took in a firm grip.

"Yes. So I see."

* * *

"You are a bitch, Gina," the blonde girl in front of her said. She had her fists clenched across the large table.

"So?" the scruffy brunette said in a lazy manner from her seat in the back of the science classroom. "Are you gonna cry to your shrine of Hitler?"

Did she really say that? Taylor looked up from her books where she was going over her school work. (Her grades had abruptly improved after Sophia had been transferred out. Emma and Madison had found out that 'zero tolerance' really was zero tolerance.

The whole room was silent as they processed the insult.

Marion Schmidt's face turned a startling red as she grabbed one of the desk chairs and shoved it out of her way. She had a twisted, angry snarl on her lips. She lashed out a fast punch at the sitting girl's face. Gina rolled with the attack ever so slightly.

"Fight! Fight!" some of the teens started to chant.

Gina had a frown as she tried to block the clumsy punches. She had to consciously try to not resist the pummeling, but even so she was still tougher than a normal human. And Piggot would string her up if she actually hurt the girl.

"Hey!" Taylor shouted, trying to grab the arm of the feisty blonde. "You guys are going to get in more trouble." Her skinny form was not holding Marion back much at all.

Marion suddenly found herself pulled off of Gina. "That is enough, Miss. Schmidt! Do you want me to call the police again?" Mr. Davis was a huge, bulky man that must have been on the way to his own class when he heard the commotion.

"Fuck you. No. Shit. Victor is going to tar my hide," Marion said.

Mr. Davis gave her a long, steady look. "I thought your father's name was Richard, Miss. Schmidt?"

"Victor's a friend of the family. He's watching me while my dad's in jail again. Sir." She was not hiding her dislike of the larger and dark-skinned man.

"Gina Itanica, Taylor Hebert. Come with me."

The three girls found themselves sitting outside the principal's office.

"You're still a bitch," Marion muttered on Taylor's left side, casing the skinniest girl to twitch.

"You already said that. Are you-" Gina started to retort on the other side, leaning forward to glare at her.

"Gina! Starting a fight in the school's office over the top of me isn't cool," Taylor interjected quickly. She was almost hyperventilating.

Gina blinked. "Oh. Sorry. Shit."

"Locker Girl is your friend? Man, you suck harder than I thought," Marion said snidely.

That was when the door opened and the principal stuck her head out. "Miss Schmidt. You're first. First time back in school in weeks and the first thing you do is get into a fight?"

The two sat awkwardly.

"So why were you provoking her?" Taylor finally asked as she nervously pushed her glasses up her nose.

"Hate nazis. Uh, neo-nazis. Fascist wanna be world conquering asshats," Gina said as she slumped down further in her chair.

"Wow, you must hate the Empire Eighty-Eight," Taylor said in small amazement.

"They are losers. I mean they don't even have any decent scientists. No giant robots, death machines, laser pistols or even making werewolves. Total losers," the new girl said.

"Uh, what?" She really was not certain if she was being serious or not.

"I mean, they don't even have a secret lair in a volcano or anything," Gina said with a curt nod of her head.

Has to be pulling her leg. Just has to be, Taylor thought to herself.

* * *

Somehow, trying to help and stop a fight was grounds for getting after school detention for an hour. At least she only had to stay today, though she had a letter that was being sent to her father about her 'fighting' in school. Gina had detention for the next week.

Taylor looked to the left at the other girl out of her peripheral vision.

Gina had a few bandages over her light bruises. (They were actually healed already, but she didn't want anyone to see that). "What?"

Taylor jumped a little bit. "So, um, could you teach me to fight a bit. I mean, to defend myself? I wasn't very helpful to try and stop Marion and I don't want to be helpless any more." She hunched her shoulders, subconsciously trying to make herself smaller and less threatening, even though she was several inches taller.

"They really fucked you up, didn't they? Sure, why the fuck not," Gina said as she scanned around. "Let's go behind that apartment building. Don't want someone calling the cops for you punching my hands."

The other girl blinked, but nodded. They tromped through the crunchy, dirty snow and behind the half boarded up windows. Taylor watched the other girl open up her hands.

"So I want you to punch my hands as hard as possible. Don't worry, you can't hurt me yet," Gina promised as she held up her hands palms forward.

Taylor nodded, then lashed out a simple punch that slapped the palm slightly.

"Stop. I want you to watch me throw a punch. First, feet slightly wider than your hips and with bent knees. And when you throw a punch, you don't just use your arm and fist. The power from the punch comes from your foot and has your whole body behind it." Gina showed, her punch snapping through the air.

The other girl nodded. "Can you do that again?" Several tiny insects were positioned across the brute's body.

"Um? Sure, I guess." Gina snapped out another punch, then another from her opposite fist.

Taylor approximated her stance and move, using more insects to 'learn' the correct positioning. Her fist slapped against Gina's palm very hard.

"Great. Now keep trying to punch through my hand," the other dimensional superhuman said.

"Right," Taylor said with total concentration. She could use this to learn some martial arts moves, she realized.

Across the empty lot and standing in the shadows, Marion Schmidt snorted as she watched them 'practice'. "Locker Taylor wants to defend herself? They're both fucking idiots." She reached down and barely touched a broken brick.

It floated off the ground, the bottom crusty with frost and dirt. With just a few simple thoughts, the brick floated up and over the abandoned apartment building. A minute later, she saw the brick reappear above the two girls. For just a moment, she thought about slamming the corner of the brick into Gina's head. But being as asshole wasn't worth a murder rap.

Breaking her bones was fair game though. With a clench of her fist, Marion shot the rock at Gina's shoulder. It hit hard enough to send the girl to her knees. Then she smirked as the board under her feet lifted up even as she pulled up her hoodie. Holding onto another rock, she shot off down the alley away from the empty lot and then over a building.

"Gina?" Taylor shouted out worriedly.

"I'm alright. Well, mostly. Someone really doesn't like me. Think my jacket took most of the hit." Dang, that actually bruised. That would have broken a normal person's arm. Should she fake a sling for a few days?

"I don't see anyone around," the taller girl said.

Gina's PRT issued phone chimed. She pulled it out, seeing a message to come to the PRT Headquarters. "Say, Taylor? I've gotta go. Foster parents are worried, so I need to hurry home."

"Oh, sure. See you in gym tomorrow?" she asked.

"Yeah," Gina replied absently.

As Taylor was walking out of sight down the road, she felt the insects on Gina suddenly travelling down the road faster than a car and headed downtown. There must have been an emergency.

* * *

The stocky form of Director Piggot was glaring at her three newest members, with Armsmaster and Miss Militia at her sides. Charged State was standing off to the side of the conference table, while Futurias in an electric blue and shockingly white costume was sitting across the table.

"Would you mind explaining why you forgot to tell us you had an entirely different set of powers and alternate costume, young lady? And you," Piggot asked, pointing at the star-spangled wearing cape, "why didn't you tell us about this?"

It had nearly given her conniptions when Dauntless had flown up to talk to her as she had been flying around all morning.

"I didn't know, exactly, what was going on. What with all the cloners and alternate dimensions. Sorry," Charged State said as she gave a helpless shrug.

"And you, Futurias?"

"Because I'm trying to not go insane. The Fifth Column captured me, trying to find the source of my powers. They don't care about not hurting their victims." Futurias stared down at the polished black surface of the conference table. "Something happened, some sort of attack. There was some explosions. I probably should have died, but two aliens tried to save themselves by bonding to me."

"Two?" Charged State blurted out in surprise. "A Warshade too?"

"No, a Peacebringer and Nictus. At times, usually overnight, I'll switch to different meldings. My Peacebringer mind meld is just... a more light and fun version of myself. The other one though, I have to fight to not sink into evil." Futuria's head was pounding. It was much easier to not think about them, the alternate personality meldings.

"So that's why she would straddle the lines as a rogue or vigilante. I never got the straight story on that before," the other refugee said in a musing tone.

A rap, then three staccato raps and then two final raps knocked on the door. Miss Militia opened the door. The scarf-wearing heroine had a quizzical look on her face. "What was with the knock?"

"Roger Rabbit?" Gitanica replied with a grin.

"I'm sorry?" Miss Militia asked.

"Cartoon movie. Way to show your maturity there, Gitanica," Charged States said with a heavy sigh of frustration.

Armsmaster's thoughts were diverted for just a second from a problem he was thinking of with his new halberd he was working on. "So are you a threat to the team?" he demanded flatly of Futurias.

"No, even as as the Warshade... I understand the rules. And I'm still loyal to friends. I just have little patience with rules or letting villains getting away." Her head was really throbbing now.

Gitanica was just looking confused. "Er, why am I here?"

Piggot gave her a sidelong glare. "Because of your fighting at Winslow. Which we will talk about in depth after Armsmaster and I make a decision or two. Armsmaster?"

"Are you still going to be combat effect in all of your... forms?" the Tinker asked shrewdly.

Futurias nodded, the edges of her vision dimming slightly. "Yes," she replied in a pained tone.

"Then we'll work with it. She has not committed a crime here. If you commit any crimes as this Warshade or Nictus, you'll have to answer for it. Director? I have some things I have to get back to." He did not even wait for an answer, heading out.

Piggot nodded, hiding her frustration at the team leader. "Gitanica. Walk with me." She led the teen heroine out of the conference room.

"Are you alright, Futurias?" Miss Militia asked worriedly.

"It just hurts sometimes. The Peacebringer and Nictus are sworn enemies on opposite political factions of their race." It would be just easier if she could just be herself for a bit. Her posture changed ever so slightly as she tapped a hidden control on her glove, shifting her outfit back to its iconic blood red and black costume. "That's better. Just... myself for now."

"Well, that was a thing," Charged States said.

Miss Militia nodded. "It was. I've got patrol this afternoon, so I'll see you later." She gave them a wave and then headed out the door to the conference room.

"So, Futurias? Is this going to keep you from tracking down Lung so we can arrest him?" the red, blue and white wearing heroine asked.

"No. Just the two of us?" the albino asked curiously as her headache faded.

"No, we need another brute and a heavy blaster. None of the Protectorate really seem to want to confront him," Charged States said firmly. Battery had just laughed in his face.

"So you want to recruit Gitanica? I may have a local blaster that would love to prove her heroism," Futurias said with a soft smile on anticipation on her face.

"Oh?"

"Purity. She quit the Empire Eighty-Eight and has been trying to do solo hero work. Very powerful, but not very flexible. She can fly at least," the defender explained. "Probably need to help get her story out there so people can see she's trying to switch sides."

"I can probably help with that. Track Lung down and we'll see what we can do to see he gets a Birdcage suite," Charged States said with a wide smile.

Futurias nodded at that.

* * *

"I want your side of the story," Piggot stated as she sat behind her cluttered desk.

"This girl showed up. She's wearing some of those gang colors for skinheads. Red shoelaces, necklace with a swastika. Generic neo-nazi crap. I let her know I hate Nazis. She called me a bitch, I agreed and then asked her if she was going to go cry to her shrine to Hitler. She jumped me and she tried to beat me up," Gitanica said as she sunk as deep as she could on the chair across from the director.

"Really? So you are abusing your invincibility to get other kids in trouble. Do you realize how serious that matter is?" Piggot snapped out.

"Are you trying to tell me what to think? Or to just ignore those facist bastards? To not be a hero?" Gitanica said as she sat up and glared hatefully at Piggot.

It was silent for a long minute as they glared at each other.

"You are a bully that likes beating up on people-"

"No, that's Shadow Stalker. I like fighting. Baiting skinhead creeps that are probably going to join the Empire Eighty-Eight is not bullying. Especially when they throw the first punch," the teen interrupted loudly. "Don't project your own issues on me."

The stocky woman looked livid, but nodded. "Perhaps you aren't a bully, but you aren't a very good hero."

"No. I'm not. But I'm trying to not screw up as much any more." Gitanica sat back down.

"Why do you hate them?" Piggot asked finally.

The young superhero looked uncomfortable. "One of my mother's first boyfriends that I remember... he was that sort of guy. And he always put her down for being quarter Japanese. Didn't stop him from screwing her though. Then he joined the Fifth Column. The Fifth Column, they make your Empire Eighty-Eight look like amateurs. They can field hundreds of soldiers fitted out with high tech, anti-superhero weapons alongside their giant robots, mutant werewolves and vampires. They've come close to conquering our Earth at times."

"He got captured or killed, didn't he?" Piggot suggested in a soft voice.

"He was still a thug and beat her. And she still wanted him back. Mom was stupid."

Piggot finally nodded her head. "There won't be any disciplinary action this time. But if you start a fight with them at school, you will be punished for it. Just like any other student."

Gitanica stood up and shrugged at the older woman. "Fair. I guess I should just grab something to eat from the cafeteria, then wait around to go on patrol."

"Have a good day, Gitanica," Piggot said frostily as she left.

The door slammed quite loudly.

* * *

The next morning, the elevator that led to the bullpen of the Brockton Bay Gazette opened to admit a woman in a pair of pinstripes suit pants, matching vest and a button up white men's shirt and tie. She doffed her fedora and looked around and finally spotted the person she was looking for.

The young man in the smallest cubical looked harried. He looked up, peering at her through his stylish prescription glasses. "Yes?"

"Jordan Lang?" She continued at his nod. "I understand you do investigative reporting on Parahumans?"

Jordan raised an eyebrow. "That's right. Heroes, rogues and villains. Very swingers outfit you have there."

"It's an acquired style, I guess. I saw it on a World War I vet and thought it classy," the dark-haired woman said with a grin.

"So what can I help you with?" Jordan asked curiously.

"I want you help to take down the Lung and his ABB thugs," she said directly as she squeezed into a small chair in front of his tiny desk.

"Isn't it dangerous for you to be without a mask? I mean, you don't know you can trust me," the reporter noted curiously.

"My only friends and family can take care of themselves. You can call me Sam," the short-haired brunette said.

"You aren't nearly nine feet tall or an albino, so you must be Charged States then. Not worried at all for your own safety?" he asked curiously.

"I'm bulletproof and just about as tough as any brute. I'm not too worried right now. We'll keep it our little secret. Can you help us with tracking down Lung?" she asked.

"Probably. You going to show up there with the Protectorate to take him down finally?"

Sam gave him a vicious grin. "Something like that."

* * *

It was three nights later that they tracked him down. Futurias had ghosted into the abandoned looking warehouse while the door had been opened by two ABB thugs. She teleported directly from the door into the rafters, cloaked in shadowy living darkness.

Then she watched as Lung stomped up and down in the open area cleaned out between old crates.

"Jahng. Lee. You had better have some good news to report about what happened two hours ago," Lung said in a threatening tone to his newly arrived underlings.

"We were attacked and robbed by unknown capes. Not heroes. Only one I recognized or saw was the Bitch. She had three of her monsters. We did not have a chance, especially with the living shadows being thrown around. There was a jester girl and some gay dude with a frilly outfit. They hit our vault just after we put in the... last of the week's take." Jahng did not look happy to explain that.

Flames were flickering over Lung's body. "They knew I would not be there as I was dealing with Hookwolf leading an attack into my territory. The shadows... that was likely Grue. He's a nobody. I will crush him and the Bitch."

"Pardon, but I think they called themselves the Undersiders, great Lung," the other new arrival said.

"Ha. Bottom feeders. If only Oni was free, he could have stopped them on his own," the leader of the ABB proclaimed. "I have received some news from a few capes from New York. Siwang Qixi was very interested in a position, though I had to promise him a large fee to leave his place in Chinatown," Lung explained. "Once he is here, we will free Oni and then start to push back against the Empire."

"Siwang? I thought he had a kill order from the PRT?" Jahng asked carefully.

"He is... a bit unstable, but he respects power. He will follow me. Or else."

That calmed the small group of his four most trusted human lieutenants.

While they had been talking, Futurias had been quietly teleporting heroes to her. First had been Charged States, then Gitanica. Finally she summoned a last minute addition; Ms. Liberty. Purity was outside and supposedly close, but she had refused to power all the down, as her glowing aura was her mask.

Charged States got a ready hand-sign from everyone, then did a three count. On one, she and Gitanica leaped forward towards where Lung was still talking just eighty feet away. By the time they both landed next to the totally surprised Lung, murky black energy was clawing at the ABB's life force from the ground below them; weakening him.

"Ambush!" Lung managed to bellow out before two powerful punches landed into his stomach with nothing held back. He lost his breath explosively, but quickly snapped a punch into the electricity brute in front of him, to little effect.

Ms. Liberty was a bare moment behind them even as she carefully gathered electricity into her upheld hands as her boots hit the ground. Lightning crackled and struck everyone within fifty feet of herself. Lung, Charged State and Gitanica didn't even flinch, but each of the lieutenants felt like they had been jabbed with tasers and collapsed in twitching heaps.

And then shadows descended, wrapping around Lung in a cocoon of inky blackness that he could not burn away with his pyrokinesis.

"คєtђєгเς คςtเשคtเ๏ภ: Shadow Fall," Futurias intoned as she used her mental mantra to shape her power. She would be using her regeneration retarding powers to their utmost, even as she healed the minor scrapes by stealing some of Lung's life force. It was a long time tactic for taking down tricky archvillains like Lung.

Purity arrived in her inimitable style, blasting a thirty foot hole in the far wall that she then flew in through. "Hey, Lung! This is payback for putting me in the hospital for a week," she called out as she gathered up her most potent blast.

He barely heard her boastful declaration, as he was starting to have serious issues even as his silver-bright scales extruded out to protect him. He could feel his regeneration reacting sluggishly and his scales seemed weaker and hardly any protection. The blinding pain as Purity's three foot wide helix-bolt refocused him, but the triple pounding by Gitanica, Charged State and Ms. Liberty was starting to pile up. Already one arm dangled loosely, broken and not healing nearly fast enough.

"Howr!?" he howled smashed a punch into the smiling giantess's face.

"Hya!" Ms. Liberty said from right behind him, smashing a eagle-claw martial attack into his back.

Lung actually felt his back break from that attack. "No! No!" He started to crumple forward as he lost control of his lower body.

"Now!" Charged State yelled out.

Two massive, fury-fueled knock-out blows lifted Lung off the ground, smashing him into the ceiling over with their punches to his jaw. He flopped back down to the ground and did not get up.

"Hell yeah! Take that!" Gitanica shouted as she bounced up and down like a loon with her fists in the air.

"Is that... normal?" Purity asked as she watched the hyperactive girl.

"Yes," the Paragons called out in synch, sounding frustrated.

The glowing woman snickered.

Futurias took a moment to send a message to the PRT. "Gitanica, help tie them up and keep our guest unconscious, please. A containment crew is on the way. Armsmaster is very upset at us."

Gitanica stopped hopping around and gave her a disgusted look. At Ms. Liberty's hand on her arm, they both started to tie up gang members with kevlar slip-ties.

"I should leave then," Purity said in a subdued voice.

"Not quite yet, I hope," Charged State called out. She had just finished sending a text message. "After all, how can people know you are a hero without being on the front page?"

"What-!? What are you talking about?" the ex-villainess stuttered out as she floated off sideways a little bit.

A tentative knock came from the front door. The star-spangled heroine popped the door off its hinges. "Meet Jordan Lang, a reporter with the Brockton Bay Gazette."

"You did it? You actually captured Lung?" the young reporter asked in amazement.

"Right over there," Charged State said, gesturing at the unconscious form in the middle of the group of captured gang members.

The reporter trotted over, snapping a quick picture or ten with his sturdy digital camera. "Amazing. How could you do that when the whole team and the Wards couldn't even stop him?"

"We had to defeat him in the first minute before his strength and regeneration could ramp up. Futurias's darkness was very useful for weakening him enough that we could take him down," Charged State explained. "It was all over in less than a minute."

That got a whistle from the reporter. He looked around, spotting the two unaffiliated capes. "Purity? So is Empire Eighty-Eight working with the Protectorate to take down Lung?"

"No! No, I quit the Empire. I'm just a solo hero, trying to make up for my past mistakes," the glowing woman said strongly. "Futurias invited me along to help make a real difference here in Brockton Bay."

"Can I quote you on that?" he asked excitedly.

"Sure." What little of her features seemed pleased with the direction of the interview.

"And how about you? I don't think I've heard of you before?" Jordan asked Ms. Liberty, recorder out even as he snapped a quick picture.

"I'm Ms. Liberty, a new heroine in the area. And an acquaintance with Futurias, Charged State and Gitanica. I'm alway happy to help out with taking down an archvillain like Lung," the pretty young blonde heroine said.

"Great! If you don't mind, I'm going to get the bare bones information and then call it in," the reporter explained.

* * *

Armsmaster tromped through the broken front door of the hideout even as the PRT containment truck pulled up outside. "Futurias, I would like to speak to you."

"Of course, Armsmaster." She followed Armsmaster over to where Gitanica was watching Lung closely where he laid on the ground.

The teen suddenly punched his head into the ground, making a small crater.

"Quit brutalizing the villain," Armsmaster ordered curtly.

"I was knocking him out again, oh master and lord," Gitanica called out snidely. "I've only hit him twice."

"So what was with this clandestine operation?" the leader of the local Protectorate asked the albino.

"Not clandestine so much as just not bothering to fight against your team's apathy about taking Lung down. I actually approached everyone on the team about the possibility of tracking him down in my task gorce. I got varied responses of 'no' to 'hell no, he'll kill us'. And from you I got that it would be making too many waves and be messy." Futurias gave him a stern look. "I am here to be a hero and that means stopping the villains while using reasonable force and not breaking those 'unwritten' rules you mentioned. Nothing more. And nothing less."

"So if I told you to back off on stirring up the hornets nest?" Armsmaster asked in a low, tense voice. He extended a needle from the heel of his halberd and jabbed lung.

"I would first ask you what would be a way to do it without making such a large mess. And if you continued to stonewall me, I would tender my resignation from the Protectorate and go my own way," the woman stated coldly.

Armsmaster met her glare through his visor. "I am going to have to talk to Director Piggot. Consider yourself on unpaid leave until next Monday-"

"Hey, Armsmaster?" Charged State called out. "That might be a really stupid idea."

"What are you talking about and why shouldn't I put you all on leave?" he snapped out.

"Because we won. And it's probably going to be on the front page," clone noted simply.

Purity actually turned to look at her in surprise at that.

"You-" He swallowed angrily, obviously getting a hold of his temper. "You may have a point." He turned to look at the floating (and glowing) woman. "Why isn't she arrested?"

"Because she and Ms. Liberty were key to taking Lung down with ninety seconds of attacking. We needed her firepower to decisively win and defeat him," Futurias declared. "And because she's trying to switch sides and become a hero."

"So she turns herself in and we look at cutting a deal. If she resists, she's still a villain and we take her down," he argued grimly.

"I can't just turn myself in," the ex-villain said in a low voice.

"So take her-" Armsmaster started to say as he readied his halberd.

"Whoa! Wait a second. Let's find out if she actually has a reason here first before you blast her," Charged State called out, stepping in between her and the leader of the team.

There was a long pause, as the Tinker thought it over. "That's fair."

"I have responsibilities in my civilian identity that I can't and won't just abandon," Purity replied after a moment of thinking.

"Your job will fire you if you don't show up?" Armsmaster asked in a flat tone.

"Not over one day, no." She really appeared to be struggling for a second to make a decision. "I have a kid. She's all I have. I won't lose her."

That almost literally rocked Armsmaster back on his heels. "That does change things. Would you fight the Empire if you joined the Protectorate?"

"I- I don't know. I think I would ask to not be sent out unless it was a really bad emergency. Some of them are friends. I can't get Nightmare, Fog or Crusader to come with me. They just quit rather than keep fighting for Kaiser," Purity explained carefully. "I tried to convince them to turn over a new leaf."

"One of them is the father, isn't he?" Ms. Liberty said in a serious but still empathetic tone.

"I- Yes. And if I go against him, he'll take her away." She looked almost defeated now, hanging in the air with her glowing hair draped in front of her face.

"I understand. We have a secret identity protection program. Let me talk to Director Piggot and we might be able to get that enacted." Armsmaster thought for a second. "I'm not heartless, but you have hurt a lot of people and have been accused of killing more. Mostly other villains, but we think you were behind Fantastar's death."

"I didn't. But I guess I can see why you would think so. I was surprised to learn he died after that battle, when he tried to take down Hookwolf. He started that fight," she replied.

"You might have to agree to go to every Endbringer fight for several years. But if you did that, it gives us a lot of flexibility in getting you reformed." Armsmaster waited for her patiently.

"I'd have to think about it. I'd need some guarantees about my daughter." She might finally succeed at breaking free entirely from the Empire Eighty-Eight.

"Can I leave now? I have a trig test in the morning," Gitanica asked crankily.

"I think that we've done enough for tonight," Armsmaster agreed with her out loud. "Purity, this is my business card. Dial the number and then after it picks up, hit the star key. That will stop the automatic tracing. If you need someone to trace it as a high priority, hit 911 afterwards."

"I'll call you in a couple of days then." With that, she shot out of the building through the hole she had blasted in through.


	3. New Paragons 1-2

Taylor panted as she ran. It was something she had decided to do, to try and get in better shape. She had used that same trick to learn proper stances for fighting from the only karate dojo within range of her house, a rundown half-house/half-studio building three blocks to the east. Maybe she should use her new 'skill' on running, too?

She practiced some punching as she slowed down to a walk the last five hundred feet to her house. Gina had suggested weights on her wrists to help build up muscle. All she could tell is it was hurting. But she could deal with pain.

She narrowed her eyes as she opened the front door to the house. The porch light made it easy to open the lock, even though the sun wouldn't rise for over a while.

Her father was just getting up and making breakfast. He looked up from where he was frying some eggs with a skillet on the stove. "Hey, kiddo. You seem to be doing better." He had been meaning to broach this subject for a week now, but he'd been almost afraid he would set back her recovery.

"I am. I don't know what happened, but the teachers and the administration suddenly stomped on any bullying around me." Taylor hesitated here. "Emma and her friend Madison can hardly open their mouths without a teacher breathing down their necks."

"Emma? I can't believe she was one of the girls, but that just goes to show you that you don't know people sometime. You know that you can always come talk to me, right? I might not be able to help directly, but I was a kid in highschool once. I just don't know what I would do without you," he finished in a low voice over the sizzle of the eggs. He flipped them over then with his spatula.

"I met a new girl. Not really a friend yet, but I'm talking with her at times. She's... sort of rude, but hates bullies and neo-Nazis," Taylor said carefully. "She's even showed me some basics on how to throw a punch."

"There are worse things than knowing how to defend yourself." Danny smiled at her as he put the eggs on a plate. "You should bring her over some time and introduce her."

"Um, maybe? I'm going to shower now."

After the shower, breakfast and the walk to school Taylor found herself in her first class quiet contemplating what she was going to do. It was starting to not be as cold and nasty outside. Even though the thought of being a hero had been an escape at first, she still wanted to do good.

To be a hero.

That thought haunted her for the most of the day.

Emma hit her bicep with her elbow. "Oh, sorry there Taylor. I didn't see you."

Taylor just glared back.

"Ooh, going blind before twenty. What sort of drugs are you frying your brain with?" Gina cat-called from the doorway.

That got the students in the hall laughing at the bully.

Taylor had taken the opportunity to follow Gina out the door while Emma glared in frustration at all the other students. "That was amazing. How did you do that?"

"Trained actually. Being quippy takes work. Good for pissing off people though." Gina seemed oddly quiet for her, just looking to the left away from Taylor as they walked along the side of the road. She was totally engrossed in watching dirty cars driving by on the road.

It took three tries for Taylor to build up the resolution, but at the turn off where Gina would head to her house, she finally spoke up. "Uh, Gina? Would you like to hang out at my place?"

Gina just turned to stare at her in surprise. She seemed to think on it really hard, but then nodded. "Sure. I guess."

The weather wasn't really that interesting, but Taylor really tried. Gina seemed to be in some sort of funk, but was at least willing to try.

Once they got to the Hebert's house, Taylor got some chips and soda out while Gina played with the TV to try and find something interesting on.

"Not much on over the air," the superhero noted in a bored tone.

"Yeah, sorry. Dad just gets videos and watches the news. I think he'd love to get cable for the sports, but not since my mom passed away a few years ago-" Taylor said cautiously, only to stop as Gina buried her head in the palms of her head. "Ah-"

She pushed the corn chips and picante sauce on the end table next to the couch Gina was sitting on, then desperately tried to find something on TV. Anything.

The crunch as Gina started to munch on some chips startled her.

Better to just ignore her red eyes. "So do you like sports?"

Gina snorted derisively at that. "Too boring. I like action movies. Bigger the explosions, the better."

"Not the most popular these days. Mostly comedies or fantasy. I heard that Earth Aleph actually sent over some movies about Harry Potter. They're pretty good." Taylor could sort of empathize with the bullied orphan.

"I'll have to watch that sometime, I guess." Gina's head turned to see on the news a breaking story about the Empire Eighty-Eight having attacked some place north of the docks. It was already over, so she just thumped her fist on her leg in frustration.

Taylor stared at the talking head for a moment. "I want to be a hero. But I don't know how."

"Being a hero sucks. Long hours-" Gina suddenly looked over at curly-haired girl, interrupting herself. "You aren't thinking something stupid like trying to take on villains without any powers, are you?"

The other girl opened her mouth, but it took three tries. "What if I did? Have powers, I mean."

Gina now narrowed her eyes. "And why would you come to me?"

"I might have seen you change into your superhero outfit and leap hundreds of feet away?" Taylor shrunk in on herself.

"When?" she asked harshly.

"When you kicked that dumpster hard, giving it a big dent. I was worried that you had been attacked. But you were fine and then with some hologram sparkles you were suddenly leaping short buildings in a single bound." Taylor's eyes blinked fairly rapidly behind her glasses.

"Oh. I'm so stupid." Gina bonked the side of her head with the bottom of her fist. "Okay. What sort of powers do you have?"

"I control bugs."

Gina kept expecting more. Finally she replied with, "That's not much of a power."

"Oh. Um I can control them perfectly within the my radius. Which reaches almost all the way back to school," she countered.

"That's better. How many?" She was pretty blunt now.

"All of them?"

"Perfectly? Well, definitely a Master. You might even be able to do a lot of tricks like a Controller," the 'veteran' mused aloud.

"What's the difference?" Taylor asked in curiosity.

"Well, Master is the PRT term for someone that controls someone else. Even animals. A Controller controls the battlefield. Trips people on, freezing them and/or causing fear. Telepaths can be a pain in the butt," Gina admitted.

"I thought the only verified telepath was the Endbringer, the Simurgh?" The uncertain look was convincing.

"Dime a dozen back in my home dimension," the shorter-haired girl said breezily, waving it off.

"You're from Earth Aleph?" Taylor blurted out in surprise.

"Nah. Not part of the local dimensions, I guess. Futurias tried to explain it, but we're from a whole different section that she named Paragon-Virtue." Her hands creaked as she clenched a fist. "Fucking stupid to name something that's destroyed."

"The whole world?" Taylor's eyes were huge.

"Yes, the whole damn world. We fought till nearly the end and then fled through a portal. And that was that. So what sort of travel power have you developed?" Gina asked, ignoring the tears that were building in her eyes.

"I think things work different for you guys. I'm pretty sure my 'travel power' is going to be 'two feet'. My bugs aren't going to be able to fly me around," the taller girl said.

"So what is your origin?" the new girl to Brockton Bay asked.

"School girl?"

"You know, natural? Mutant? Magical? Science? Tech?"

"Those are origins? You mean like the X-Men mutants?" Taylor was actually getting weirded out.

"No idea who the X-Men are, but I'm a mutant. My genes triggered to save me from accidentally poisoning myself with some magical tattoo ink," Gina explained as she leaned back on the couch.

"Magic isn't real," Taylor said flatly.

"ﻮเtђгคςк קยtгเll๏гเкςฬ," the some-time giantess intoned rhythmically as black flames flickered into existence around her hand. "I'm only a dabbler, but magic can be useful at times."

"No fucking way," Taylor said. "Is that black magic?"

"Um, yes? I was a villain for over a year, under Ghost Widow. Creepy undead bitch showed me how to use it to help in battle at times." Gina raised an eyebrow at her new friend who was freaking out.

"Magic is real. Does that mean souls are real?" the bespectacled girl asked in a terribly small voice.

"As far as I can tell. I've run into way too many ghosts to not believe in them. They tend to hurt." Gina gave her a shrug. "You have a mask yet?"

"And an undershirt of silk I've made. It's kind of ugly, but I think it might be slightly bulletproof. I wish I could figure something out better for my glasses. Can't really afford contacts," she admitted as she desperately tried to force the thought that souls existed. That the afterlife was real.

"You'll have to wear your glasses for now. Do you have your prescriptions? I can ask Kid Win or Futurias about making some goggles or a mask with the right lenses." Gina stood up and grabbed her jacket.

"I can stop by the optometrist and get that. Do you think they'd do that without meeting me?"

Taylor looked a bit needy, in Gina's eyes. "They'll probably try to make it shoot lasers or something.

"Capes are weird," Taylor complained as she shook her head.

"Well, I guess I finally graduated to Trainer." Gina gave a chuckle at that. "I'll do my best, okay?"

She just smiled back shyly. "That's all I can ask."

* * *

Bug-Girl 101 was... not at all like she had thought it would be. Gitanica had carried her into the forest about several miles to the north of Brockton Bay and away from any houses. The clearing was barely fifty feet wide.

"Okay, try it again," Gitanica called out. She then charged at Taylor and threw a slow punch.

She responded, having the bugs swirl to try to blind the hero. When Gitanica got close, the other part of the swarm slipped under her left foot as Taylor tried to pull her off to the side as Gitanica stumbled. And Taylor finally got the timing just right and the brute went down in a slide.

"It worked?" the trainee hero said in surprise.

"Yes, it actually did. A decent knockdown attack. Wish you had more spiders so you could try for an entangling attack. You are getting really good at the blinding thing," the masked heroine explained. "Hmm..."

Taylor tilted her head in confusion. "Is there a problem?"

"I was just going to ask if you have got the feeling down for how you push or take control of your bugs?" Gitanica asked.

"Maybe?" Taylor wasn't really sure.

"Good, then I want you to find a spot to sit down. And then I want you to try to push that feeling into your muscles." At the other girl's incredulous look. "I know it sounds stupid, but with a little work you might find out you can jump higher or run at super-speeds."

"Does it actually work?" Taylor asked as she found a mostly dry spot in the clearing they were in.

"Absolutely," Gitanica sort of lied. It could work if they believed in it. "So first, I'd like you to start breathing. Let your breathe out, pull air in. While you are pulling your air in, imagine that breathe filling you with your bug power."

It sounded absolutely weird to Taylor, but she was not the expert. She started to breathe in and out. It felt like her power was either resisting her or did not know what to do with her own body.

"Are you getting it?" the trainer asked in a low, melodic voice. "Does it feel part of you now?"

"Yes." She felt suffused with the feeling, even if it did not feel like it was doing anything.

The thunderclap right behind her was immensely loud, scaring the crap out of her. She was already dodging forward in a panic. She had leaped to her feet and away. Her head turned to look at Gitanica running after her, only to get in front and catch her.

"Whatwasthat!?" the rookie hero demanded.

"Super speed and super leaping? Interesting. I guess your power decided that the proportional leaping and speed of bugs was good enough for a travel power," Gitanica said with a cocky grin on her face. "Backstreet Brawler really was correct that its the best way to enhance your power."

"Super... speed?"

"Sure, you were going at least a hundred miles per hour and leaped over forty feet from sitting on the ground." Gitanica had kept her grin on her face. "Ready for a run?"

"Sure." Taylor had matching grin. That was a cool subset of her powers.

They took off at a jog, Gitanica reminding her to breathe in the feeling into her muscles. The jog speed up into a run, the forest outside of Brockton Bay starting to disappear in a blur.

The veteran hero hopped a fallen tree, shouting out an encouragement to the rookie.

But five minutes later, Taylor was very happy to stop at a highway.

"That's amazing. And anyone can do that? I never read anything like that on Parahuman Online." Her breath was coming back to her with each large gulp of air she took.

Gitanica blinked at that. "Not at all? But that's just the basics?"

"Maybe where you are from. I feel like a wet and sore noodle. Sooo out of shape."

"Guess it's time to get you home. Can't believe how you skittered out of the way of my hand-clap."

Talky blinked, then nodded. "Skitter. I can work with that."

* * *

Two weeks later, she had her costume entirely ready. It was, as Gina out it, a little edgy and darker than she wanted. Even a couple of the ABB thugs she had trained 'live' against agreed on that. But she was not going out 'hero-ing on her own' yet, she was going to do something much scarier. With only a little prodding from Gina, she was bearding a lion that she had no desire to face. The thump of the front door thudding home was her signal.

"Um, dad? Is anyone with you?" she called out from the basement as she finished pulling up her armored costume.

"No, why?" he yelled out in a confused tone. He put a bag of groceries down on the kitchen table. Why was the front drapes shut? It made the family and dining room a bit dark.

"Because I have something to show you," she said as she finished walking up the stairs.

Danny Hebert stared at the apparition that was a costume cape from the neck down and his daughter neck up.

"Taylor, what are you doing?" he asked in a painful, strangled voice.

"I have super powers. And I want to be a hero." Her voice was terribly low, almost a whisper.

"Oh, Taylor. When did it happen?" He walked across the room and took her up in a hug.

This is really what she wanted. She hugged him back, feeling a bit of peace return to her life. "It was the locker incident. It's why I was so messed up afterwards. I was sensing all those bugs. It was very freaky."

Danny released his hug to hold her at arm's length. "You have a mask and everything? But it's so dangerous."

"Most of the time I'll be blocks and blocks away. I have a very large range." She suddenly grinned. "And Gitanica has been training me in how to use my power to 'run away' fast. I can run faster than local traffic pretty easily."

"That actually makes me feel better. Though I think I'd rather you have a bulletproof vest than a silk body-stocking," he said while critically eyeing her outfit. It didn't have near enough armor for his taste.

"Actually, this suit is more bulletproof than kevlar. I added a little more armor and padding underneath it. Makes it a little harder to put on, but should be worth it." She started to pull on her mask. It covered her entire head with her goggles and armor plates turning it almost into a helmet. Her hair was pulled through an overlapping flap at the nape of her neck. "What do you think?"

"It's kind of dark," he admitted as he scratched the back of his head nervously.

The slump of her shoulders was pure Taylor. "That's what Gitanica said. But she liked it anyways."

"It's not bad. Very professional. You made it yourself?"

She nodded. "I'm wanting to meet the Wards today. No secret IDs or anything, but if you want you can come talk to the PRT about me joining. Gitanica says that's a lot safer for rookie heroes. And they have medical coverage, just in case."

Danny looked terribly conflicted, but finally nodded. "I'd rather you have someone to help you then you go out on your own."

The young heroine nodded and pulled out a blocky smartphone. "Hello. Yes, he wants to come in to talk to the PRT about me joining the Wards." She listened for a second. "What do you mean hold on for transportation-"

With a blink she was gone. Danny's mouth just dropped open and then suddenly with a pulling sensation he was suddenly in a office.

"Hello, my name is Futurias. It's nice to meet you." The tall heroine in black and maroon-red was quite imposing.

Danny stuck out his hand automatically. Futurias stared at it a second.

"Oh, right. Sorry." She shook his hand a little too forcefully.

"So I'm supposed to talk to someone about my daughter?" he asked as he checked with the teenage hero with a quick look.

"That's right, dad."

"I'll be taking us there. But first let me escort Skitter to the lobby," the albino explained as she led them out of the office and down the hall.

Danny looked confused, but then realized it must be his daughter's cape name.

"See you," Skitter said awkwardly as she gave her father a little wave. She slipped through door, hearing it click shut behind her.

A very large group of pre-teen kids was being led by some harried teachers and a PRT guide.

"Who's he?" one of the boys shouted.

A boom sounded from outside, then Gitanica appeared as she leaped across the ground to enter the large front glass doors from one side. She ducked her head to fit through the doors. "Hi, JC. Here to escort the new prospective Ward up to the base."

The entire class made an 'awwww' sound.

JC, the PRT guide, made a quick decision. "Would you like to introduce yourself."

"Uh, hello? I'm Skitter," the new heroine said in a very unconfident voice.

"What do you do?" a young girl in ponytails asked.

"I control bugs." With that, she had all of her aerial insects fly up in a circle behind her for a few seconds then disappear back into her chitin armor.

"Ewww," most of the girls said. Most of the boys on the hand looked at her as if she was the coolest thing since sliced bread.

Gitanica just grinned. "Come on, Skitter. Everyone else is ready to meet you."

The two very different young heroines walked over to the Ward's elevator.

Skitter looked the much taller (and mature) looking girl. "I can't believe your power turns you into a seven foot tall Amazon."

"I thought I was stuck that way for a year or so. Eating out as a giant was expensive. I did win a food eating contest once though," Gitanica said brightly.

The high speed tinker elevator zoomed back up quietly to the top floor with a jaunty little ding as it arrived. The giant shrunk down to her much more normal height of five foot two inches.

"They put the retina scanner down at a low enough level so that Vista can reach it," the now normal-sized girl complained. She put her eye to the scanner, then put her hand into a small control panel and tapped something out on a hidden pad.

The door opened to a small crowd of teens. Skitter recognized Aegis, Clockblocker, Vista, Gallant, Shadow Stalker and finally Kid Win.

"So this is the new hero you've been mentoring?" Gallant said. "Nice to meet you. Let's go through a round of introductions. Kid Win, you first."

"I'm Kid Win, as Gallant just stated so I'd be redundant in introducing myself," the younger teen said with a mock glare at the charismatic teen.

Skitter stood uncomfortably as he introduced himself. "I'm Skitter, thanks."

Then it was not quite a blur of names, but that was only because of all the costume to match to names.

"So what are your powers?" Vista blurted out.

"They are bug themed powers. I thought at first I was just a Master because I could just control bugs, but Gitanica showed me how to use it to get a bit of super-speed and leaping. But I don't have the proportional speed or anything," the new heroine explained. Bug reacted in milliseconds, much faster than a human could hope to ever be.

Clockblocker's totally blank helmet just turned to look at Gitanica. "She tried something sort of like that for me too. I thought it was just a weird idea. How fast can you go?"

"I think she can hit about a hundred miles per hour and she's still figuring out things as she goes along. Believe she's also a Master 4 or 5, Tinker 1, Mover 2, Thinker-I-have-no-fucking-clue, but she can't be overloaded multitasking her bugs," Gitanica explained to them.

"Swear jar!" Vista called out.

Gitanica just glared for a second at the other girl, then walked over to a large jar next to the TV in the 'den' area of the Ward's home and dropped two quarters into the jar.

Skitter nodded then watched her friend's antics, not really understanding it all too well, but starting to get the gist. She had actually been trying to enhance her strength and brain, which had helped a great deal with her speed. Because while it did not make her smarter, it made her be a lot faster. And being able to be about twice as strong was of limited usefulness.

Aegis gave out a whistle. "That's an interesting set of powers."

"A damn set of lame powers," Shadow Stalker declared abrasively. "I bet you she can't even fight."

"I've been training her in battlefield control. Just like those things I've been working with Vista on. So quit being a bitch. I thought you'd been to see your shrink this week?" Gitanica said snidely.

"Girls!" Aegis shouted out, cutting them off.

Skitter was just glaring at Shadow Stalker now.

"Just ignore her. She's been a total bitch since she got in trouble because she's a psycho," Clockblocker said without a trace of his normal levity.

"Fuck you!" She started over towards the swear jar to dump a dollar into it.

"Why does she pay into the jar?" Skitter finally asked into the oppressive atmosphere.

"She doesn't want to get thrown back into jail," Vista said nastily.

Skitter's head snapped towards the younger girl. "What?"

"Vista! That was totally uncalled for. Especially in front of a new recruit. Her bad behavior does not excuse bad behavior on your own part. You just earned a week of dispatch duty," Aegis snapped out to the younger girl.

"But-!"

"No. This is final and I will talk to Armsmaster about it, too. I thought you were better than that," Aegis said in a very disappointed tone.

"I- Sorry, Aegis."

Gitanica coughed into her fist. "Yeah, Shadow Stalker and I are ex-villains. But you know, trying to be a hero now."

"That explanation you gave me when I asked you if you got powers...?" the new hero asked her friend.

"Very abbreviated version of my history, yes. For my troubles, I do get to see the shrink on Wednesday afternoons." She gave a shrug.

A buzzing sounded over the intercom, sounding quite assistant.

"I'll get it," Gallant said as he walked over to a control desk. "Gallant here."

"The prime minister of Australia has declared his intention to accept all help to fight the Simurgh that just showed up above Canberra. Please contact your families if you wish to try to assist in the fight against the Endbringer," the crackling voice of Armsmaster came over the speaker.

"An Endbringer? Hell yeah!" Gitanica shouted.

"We'll be assembling all capes on the VTOL platform outside the PRT Headquarters in half an hour. Armsmaster out." With a click, the room was suddenly silent.

There was a very long silence.

Kid Win had dropped his gaze. "My mother already told me no. Not like my stun lasers can help."

"My family doesn't care, so I'll be going," Vista said in a low voice. She pulled out her cell phone and stepped to the side.

"And I don't have a choice, unlike miss psycho that's looking forward to fighting the Endbringers," Shadow Stalker said in a tone of voice that was almost a snarl. Her mother had agreed all too quickly on the PRT's demands as part of her 'new deal' probation.

"You're not a Ward yet, Skitter, so you don't have to go at all," Gallant said in a somber tone.

"I want to. I may not be able to hurt it, but against the Simurgh, I can help find and rescue people with my bugs-"

"With her amazing Bug Sense!" Clockblocker crowed out, breaking the somber mood.

"That's not funny!" Skitter said. She worked hard to figure out her powers.

It wasn't a whine. Really.

"She's be amazing with her range. Could spell out directions on how to evacuate to the people, too. Shouldn't have to get close enough to be affected," Gitanica said as she considered the manner. She had done a fair bit of studying on the Endbringers in anticipation of this fight.

"Half an hour. Luckily we have a teleporter in our group now," Aegis said as he punched his right fist into the palm of his hands. He then pulled out his phone and started to call his own parents.

Skitter nodded to herself, then turned to Gitanica and Kid Win. "Could you guys take me back to the PRT area where I arrived? I need to talk to my dad."

"You brought your dad?" Kid Win said.

"She pushed me a bit into it. Besides, with Gitanica here I think the Wards might be... tolerable."

"Ouch. Now I'm just tolerable! Stabbed through the heart!" Gitanica said, holding her hands over her heart.

The ride down was fast and smooth again. The entry foyer was notably empty right then and Kid Win signed her into the front desk PRT officer and then back into the office area. Then it was about five minutes for her to find her father talking to a heavyset woman.

"We better wait here," Gitanica said, catching Kid Win's arm to direct him to the side.

Danny blinked in surprise as he saw his daughter approach. "Skitter?" he asked uncertainly.

"Dad, I want to go with the Wards," she said earnestly.

He actually smiled at that. "That should be fine." It was good to see his little girl getting out and socializing.

Skitter was blinking at him behind her goggles. Oh, he must not know. "To fight the Simurgh in Australia, dad."

The abrupt shift had Danny reeling mentally. "No!"

"But I can help. I wouldn't even be fighting her, probably just helping with rescuing people," she tried to argue. "I could save lives."

"No. I am not sending my daughter out to fight Endbringers as her first act as a Ward. Maybe when you are older. But not right now," Danny said very clearly and a bit louder than normal.

She knew that tone of voice. "I understand. I want to see them off though? Is that okay?" While he nodded, she suddenly realized what he'd said. "I'm a Ward? Just like that?"

The woman next to him gave a short chuckle at that. "Yes, Skitter, you are. Just like that. Your father does see the need for young heroes to be mentored and trained. The medical benefits were just the clincher. Director Piggot. Or as most of the Wards refer to me, 'boss'."

"Um, nice to meet you? But I have to catch up before they leave."

"Yes, I heard that Futurias is going to be ferrying to Australia. Mr. Hebert, if you would come with me while we get the contract from Legal?" Piggot said to the father.

Skitter trotted over to the waiting teens. "I guess I'm a Ward already. That was fast."

"All right then, lets go," Gitanica said as she led them back to the foyer.

"I'll see you later." Kid Win he turned back towards the elevator.

"Later, KW!" the giant woman said as she ducked through the doorway. She looked down at her friend. "So no?"

"I'm going," Skitter said in a very stubborn sounding tone.

Gitanica cracked a huge smile. "Just remember, you're armor isn't that good. So no charging her head on."

"I'm not stupid, Gitanica!"

There was quite a crowd on the VTOL pad. All of the local protectorate except Triumph and Velocity. Vista, Clockblocker and Aegis were there, but only Gitanica and Skitter joined them. It was the other additions that were surprising.

The glowing cape named Purity floated next to Futurias, the pair an odd contrasts of opposites. With her was three more capes; Fog in his white outfit, Night in her voluminous cloak and Crusader. The last was busy chatting up with Miss Militia, talking animatedly as he gestured with his hands.

Armsmaster looked over the group, a grim smile of pride on his face. "New Wave will be arriving shortly, then we will depart." This was more people than were coming from Boston.

Charged State was talking on the phone. "One more if you can wait?" she asked as she looked up from her phone.

"Your friend, Ms. Liberty?" the leader of the Protectorate Brockt Bay asked.

"That's right." Charge State then closed her eyes, reaching for her powers mentally. Mentally juggling how to use her own powers as energy started to crackle over her body.

Black shadows shimmered over Futurias as her normal skin tight outfit was modified. At its base, it was still her black and maroon outfit, but now heavy gauntlets and greaves of silver were added, along with a light metal face-guard, chest and belt armor. Glowing energy glowed from within it.

"Why don't you wear that all the time?" Vista asked. "That looks cool."

"It's an armor to allow me to use my full potential as an Incarnate. It is relatively overkill most of the time," the albino paragon explained.

All of the New Wave heroes showed up; Lady Photon, Manpower, Laserdream, Shielder, Brandish, Glory Girl and Panacea all were flown in on their own group manner.

"Are we all set?" Brandish asked Armsmaster.

"Just one final hero flying in from the Dartmouth. How long will it take her to get to us, Charged State?" Armsmaster asked one of his new recruits.

"I think I feel her now," the star-spangled brute said.

With a krakoom of a bolt of thunder, Ms. Liberty arrived in a blurred streak of flight that slammed home into the ground next to them. Her outfit was almost as it always was, though now she had changed her mini skirt in for a pair of long tights in a matching blue.

"Sorry, I'm late. I had to slip out of my class," the blond explained to the group. Energy crackled through her, barely controlled by her girdle's magic

"Anyone else?" Futurias asked. She was typing on a holographic control screen above her left gauntlet.

That got a round of people shaking their heads or saying no. Deep inside the PRT headquarters, the mini-power plant revved up to full speed as it fed energy into a special transmitter.

Futurias' shoulder armor started to leak enough energy to make it hard to look at her.

And then, with a boom of displace air, they were suddenly gone.

* * *

The bang of displaced air was quite startling as a the fairly large group of capes appeared on the grass in a park, fluttering flags in a long row along one side.. It was quite dark and night time here on the other side of the world, but rather pleasant if a bit muggy.

The young cape that was there whistled appreciatively. "Wow, there sure are a lot of you here. Come on, Alexandria is briefing people while Legend, Eidolon and Downunder fight the Simurgh and keep her occupied."

They all trotted or flew over to the parahumans all gathered under some lights where tables and chairs were set up as soldiers were putting up tents.

"-once again, unless you have proven immunity to the Simurgh's telepathy, you have only limited time. Dragon has provided us with armbands that will monitor how long you are within range when you hear her song," Alexandria was saying. "Armsmaster? Good to see you here so quickly."

Futurias raised a hand. "If you can try to stick somewhat near me, I can imbue those in a short range almost total immunity to mind control effects along with a heavy protection against psionic attacks."

"How mobile are you?" the female Triumvirate asked in a very intense tone.

"I can fly or teleport, but I'll try to keep close enough to people on the ground."

That got a small cheer from the crowd.

"Search and rescue, talk to Valorian. She's in charge of helping evacuate people as quickly as we can. We need to hit the Simurgh hard and fast before most of the Australian government has to be quarantined. Let's go!" With that, she lifted off the ground and then flew off towards the center of town to the west.

All of the flyers were only a moment behind her.

Skitter headed over to Valorian, who was a woman wearing purple and white. She was followed by several other teen capes.

"Quick run down of your powers and how you can help," the woman ordered.

"Flyer and can take a little damage. I figure I can go and fly specific people out," Aegis explained. "If I team up with Vista here, we can get a lot of stragglers out."

"Which is me. I can compress or expand distances, but it's Manton limited. But in the air I can cut down the response time by at least a quarter," the youngest cape present said.

"Good. Panacea, we don't have any wounded yet, but I would like you to stay here. We'll be the primary healers here, I think," Valorian noted aloud. "And you dark and creepy?"

"I can control and sense through insects, with about a half mile range. I figure I can help track down people for others to rescue while I direct them from the battle. I didn't realize how mobile the Simurgh was. She keeps moving fast," Skitter complained.

"You can track the Simurgh? In real time? Any limits to your power? How many bugs can you control?" the local heroine asked.

"I think so. I've got some insects on her already. And I haven't run into a limit on how many bugs I can control so far. Oh, and I can run and jump pretty fast, just in case," Skitter explained, a little confused.

"Okay, slight change of plan. We are going to be linking up with Major Aussie there. He's been put in charge of deploying heroes. You are going to help him while doing S&R. Okay, let's move, folks."

The Simurgh was firing several cannons at the hero Downunder, sending her flying into a shopping plaza from the hits. She was broken and dead before she even hit the walls.

The air started to tingle, then a massive column of lightning erupted from the ground and down from the sky, pulverizing almost all of the floating guns that the Endbringer had created. It turned away from Legend and Eidolon for a second, looking towards the two approaching figures that were charged and leaking electricity as they smashed the last two guns to broken fragments.

It wavered back and forth, as if looking for something. That something was Alexandria as she suddenly appeared out of a cloud of inky blackness, catching the Endbringer by surprise. Abruptly it could see that she was leading a whole group of heroes. Then shadows blackness burned and covered the Endbringer's body, clouding its senses even more.

But it could not see those heroes clearly, not past the point where Alexandria had appeared. Massive amounts of rubble were lifted up, far more than anyone had seen the Endbringer move before. They were all being used as a shield against attacks.

Futurias narrowed her eyes. "I'm going to clear the debris!" With a snap, she disappeared.

The Endbringer suddenly turned, seeing dozens of heroes appear out of a murky past and future only a hundred feet away and only for a short time!

A massive surge of black energy exploded right next to, catching it in stunning, absolute surprise. Everything except the Endringer and Futurias abruptly ceased to exist as meaningful matter within a hundred feet. The albino swished off back to the group of heroes that, cloaking them back in her anti-psychic aura of inky shadows. Futurias blinked back to the hero group.

That did not even slow the heroes follow on, Legend and Purity at the forefront, from unloading while within the protective shield. Eidolon was gathering up power, testing what he now had gained with the arrival of all of the other capes. Then he unleashed incandescent sparks that burned off some of the small wings of the Endbringer.

"Why are we still hearing it's psychic song, even at a muted level?" Charged State called out. "I'm immune to psychic mind-control powers myself, much less with Futurias' help." She rushed out of Futurias' aura, smashing an electrified punch into the Simurgh's expressionless face.

"It's not a mind control," Futurias called out. "Perhaps a form of physical psionic attack on the nervous system?" That would explain why it was not just blocked by her powers to protect against all forms of mesmerization. If it was using psionics to manipulate them physically, it would be 'psychic damage' not mind control, which she only massive protected against.

Legend took a moment in between blasting the embattled Endbringer to float over to her. "How sure are you of that?"

"Almost positive," she replied.

"It's still muted. Does that mean we can fight longer up close?" Purity yelled out.

"Yes. Still protected for a longer time, just not as thoroughly," she replied, adding her meager blasting of negative energy.

Legend nodded. He unleashed several blasts that hit the Simurgh perfectly, as she did not even attempt to dodge or block with rubble like she always had for years each time he attacked. "She's blind?"

Several other blasters were unloading into the erratically bobbing winged horror, but it was more random and not nearly as effective. Sometimes the Endbringer even dodged into attacks.

"She can't detect anyone within Futurias' psionic protective aura," Alexandria said as she narrowed her eyes, her Thinker power actually deduces the Endbringers problem. Which meant she saw via some form of mental power. Telepathy? Perhaps something else.

"We got this in the bag!" one of the native Australian heroes screamed out in glee.

Large pieces of debris of the capitol building lifted up, forming a crude shields that covered the Endbringer in an arc that was roughly pointed in their direction, but was quickly be pulverized by the blasters with impunity.

That was when eight Tinker devices shot out of the earth in a rough circle around the mass of heroes. With a thundering boom, the high tech anti-personnel bombs went off. Everyone, dozens of heroes and villains, took punishing hits as it turned into a killing ground.

* * *

Skitter blinked, then rushed in more insects into the hole in her perception. "Status change. I just lost every insect on 90 % of the capes fighting the Simurgh." She looked over at the Valorian and Panacea, trying to convey how lost she suddenly was.

Panacea gasped.

Major Aussie looked up from the map. "What do you mean?"

"The Simurgh detonated some bombs, I think. And killed most everyone. So many bodies- Why are the bodies being moved? They are being placed in a pile." Skitter was totally confused.

"I need actual eyes on the scene. We need to know if we have to just cordon off the city," Major Aussie said even as she slammed his fist on the table, disrupting the bugs on it for a second.

They all crawled back into position under Skitter's casual, perfect control. She turned to him. "Then I'll head out." She took off at a sprint across the grounds of the Peace Park. With a leap, she cleared a ten foot embankment. The runner was so fast she did not even hear him yell for her to stop.

The flashes of energy and blasts would have made it easy to spot without her insects. The Endbringer looked battered, damaged but undaunted as it continued to assemble new weapons as Eidolon, Alexandria, Legend, Ms. Liberty, Charged State and Gitanica fought on.

The young Ward was gritting her teeth as she pushed against a green beam that was melting the ground in front of her with its backwash. "I'm not going to give up, you stupid birdbrain."

Another Tinker gun was finished being assembled, unleashing a pulsing blue beam that shook the whole area as it blasted Ms. Liberty. It may as well have been shooting her with a searchlight for all the damage it was doing. Her return punch pushed the Smirugh back fifty feet and through a fast food restaurant.

Eidolon and Legend were attacking with sparks and beams, blowing off feathers, while Alexandria and Charged State stayed directly in melee in the air, corralling the Endbringer between them to make it harder for it to just float away.

She skidded to a halt next to a large mound of bodies in the shadowy aura of the heroine. Futurias, battered and bleeding, floated overhead as bodies were teleported in a macabre pile of limbs.

"Futurias, what are you doing?"

"I am recovering the dead to apply emergency assistance," the Defender declared flatly.

Skiter hoped that it was to make them into zombies or something. "Limits?"

"No limits other than being within a short distance of myself," Futurias called back. She would not mention that she also had to be mid-range of an enemy also.

"Ninety-six feet in that direction," Skitter called out, pointing towards a smashed shopping plaza. SZWRING. "Forty-two feet and behind that car." SZWRING.

Her earpiece crackled. "Skitter, report," Major Aussie demanded.

"Futurias is still active and has a plan. Helping her recover the bodies," she shouted back even as more insects pointed out more bodies, teleports ringing out. The low singing in the background was annoying. Was the that the Simurgh's song?

"Is that all of them?" Futurias demanded.

"This is everyone I can detect or had tagged," she shouted back.

Black energy gathered in Futurias' hands. "๓є๓єtเς єภς๏๔є קгєקคгє๔: קєภย๓๒гค гєคl๓ l๏ςкє๔ ๏ภ. ς๏ภŦเг๓є๔ ς๏ภภєςtเ๏ภ. คςtเשคtเ๏ภ ๏Ŧ ๓є๓єtเς tгเﻮﻮєг: คςtเשคtเภﻮ - ђ๏ฬlเภﻮ tฬเﻮђlเﻮђt!" A beam of black energy was pulled from the Endbringer, who whirled in startled surprise as something affecting her from the killing ground. Something draining energy from her!

Skitter's mouth opened up in shock as massive streams of black energy exploded from the ground under the corpses, causing them to float up into the air so that they could all land on their feet. "What the fuck!?"

"That is not a situation report, Skitter," Major Aussie shouted back across the radio headset. "What is going on?"

"Futurias just resurrected everyone that had been killed. No fucking way!"

"Get the Endbringer!" the revived Downunder shouted out to all the capes present. "Let's do this for the world!"

Beams of energy and the roar of those that charged into melee was heady. Life energy was stolen from the Endbringer as Futurias healed herself up, then kept blasting and summoning energy. She turned and started summoning with small, human sized figures of nebulous darkness who started to added their own inky blackness to summon black tentacles to try and bind the Endbringer while adding their own damage.

The Simurgh spun back around as a heavy onslaught appeared out of her blind spot again. Each of its remaining wings was being used as a shield. Feathers were being blasted off as she turned her sense towards the fast flying leader of the Australian national hero team: Downunder. She was flying perfectly fine, uninjured in the least and alive.

She could see her death. Then her body disappeared from the Endbringer's sight. And then when she reappeared, the heroine was fully healed without any sort of trauma! It turned its attention back to implanting its triggers, only to realize that while she had been fighting so hard, all of the people within her range had been removed.

So the Simurgh wrapped all of its wings around herself and then shot straight up into the sky.

The whoops of joy would have down NASA control proud.

"Um, Major Aussie? The Simurgh just took off straight up. I think its retreated," Skitter informed the thinker hero.

A lightning bolt crackled through the air to try and strike the retreating abomination.

Futurias landed down upon the ground, checking over the area. She smiled to herself, mentally chalking up the Raid as a success.

The Triumvirate landed next to the darkly garbed albino.

"An impressive first showing," Alexandria said as she gathered her black caped behind her, looking quite regal.

"I would have rather fully defeated it, but that appears it will take entrapping it in a forcefield of some sort," Futurias admitted.

"Oh, wow," Skitter said in awe as she realized she was actually there, right there, with her childhood hero.

"That has been beyond our grasp, but there is always hope," Legend said, a large smile that you could hear in his voice. "That was some stunt, bring them back to life. I hope that is permanent?"

Eidolon said nothing, staring at the newcomer that had actually shown them up. He released his powers, trying to reach out for something similar to what she was using. But for once, his power was balking, as if it did not understand what he was trying to do.

"Of course it is. Soul fully joined with their reincorporated bodies. They may have flashes of their time as spirit, but it's mostly trauma free," she explained with a matter-of-fact nod of her head.

"You believe in spirits?" Alexandria asked, not quite hiding her disapproval.

"I've fought too many ghosts, spirits, imps and demons to not believe in them. I leave it up to the experts mostly on the specifics. I'm more of a 'neutralize, blast it' sort of girl," Futurias said as she shrugged.

The three of the most recognized heroes of the world shared a glance with each other, giving off a bewildered vibe, even with their full masks and concealing costumes.

Armsmaster walked over from where some of the other Protectorate groups had been talking. "I think we have something for the record books. No permanent fatalities."

Legend perked right up at that. "We must have really spooked Ziz there."

"Sadly, I don't think that we'll be able to spook Behemoth or Leviathan," Alexandria noted, putting a damper on the good mood.

"Myrdinn was a bit surprised that the Endbringer attack was already repulsed. The Slaughterhouse Nine eluded him again. He did offer to help ferry people home," Armsmaster explained to the other leaders of the Protectorate.

"I'll help with that too," Eidolon said gruffly.

"Oh, and Skitter? We are going to have a very long discussion with your father about coming to an Endbringer fight against his wishes. And as your very first action as Ward," he said pointedly to her.

"I saved lives today, so I don't regret it." She was upset that she had to go behind her father's back, but he didn't even try to listen to her.


End file.
